Sweet Sweet Potato

 In 2013 I tried to grow sweet potato vines from a store bought sweet potato.  I poked toothpicks in halfway down and placed it in water to let the eyes begin to produce vines.  I had no luck.

Now the older and wiser crew told me that while my methods were sound, I failed because of the radiation that store bought produce is subjected to these days.  That made me feel better about myself, but alas, still no homegrown sweet potatoes.

That brings me to 2014, when I purchased store bought sweet potatoes, from the same store even as the 2013 experiment.  Yet, these were not for growing, no they were for eating.  Except we forgot to eat them.  I let these two languish in a dry dark pantry.  You know, the kind of place every home gardener puts their seeds when they want them to grow!

Yet grow they did.  With no water and inadequate light, these radiated store bought sweet potatoes sprouted vines.  This was early in the growing season, causing me to think that I would transplant them out into the garden and all would be well.  Yet I didn't do that.

I again allowed them to languish in the pantry, devoid of sunlight and moisture.  And they continued to grow.  So finally, convinced that these must be the strongest and best sweet potatoes ever to be on the planted, I transplanted them.

Carefully, so as not to damage the divine vines, I pulled them off the potatoes themselves and placed them in a pint jar of water.  Soon roots began to take shape.  And the leaves grew and the plants strengthened.  

Finally, as you can see here, I moved them to potting soil and large enough containers to support growth of the next generation of sweet potatoes.

It should take four months for maturity, which would put me right in the spring when hopefully we can get these plants to start anew as we harvest the fruit of these vines.  Stay tuned for the progress.  My only concern is that too much watering and being placed in sunlight is going to be bad for these guys.

Hugelkultur Part Two

You know what else has layers?  Hugelkuturs have layers.  My plan was manure after the wood topped with soil.  I might mix some compost material in later.  But today was for layers two and three.

Today, with the help of Bill Staley I continued my construction of my hugelkultur.  Here Bill dumps one of many loads of manure on top of the wood pile from the other day.

Now that the entire pile has a layer of manure, we are ready for dirt.

Here is a close up of the south end of the pile with soil on it.

Here is a view of the pile as it sits now.  I'll let it compact a little during the winter and probably do a little shaping in the spring.

During the winter the hugelkultur should begin to break down the wood, allow the manure to age properly, and compact into a nice mound.  Unless I decide to start shaping it now, I'm done with this project until the spring.

Hugelkultur

This may just look like a pile of wood waiting for a good bon fire, but it isn't.  This is the beginning of my hugelkultur.  At the end of this year's gardening season, ours had become overrun with weeds.  We did a poor job of maintaining it this year.

My bride asked me to look into raised gardens and see if they were easier to keep weed free.  In my searching, I came across hugelkultur and was immediately hooked.  The process takes care of some otherwise useless yard waste in rotting wood and branches.  It is less dependent on water which helps us conserve and is lower maintenance.  The raised height of 4-5 feet will reduce bending and stooping for the weeding and picking at the top of the garden.  Plus I like mounds as a visual change in the yard.

I chose this spot for two reasons.  1) Susan's Grandma used to have a garden in this area.  We like the idea of gardening where she did and it is closer to the house than our current area.  2) Grandma planted an arbor day delivery of ten trees here and they got out of control. I combined two steps in one and cut those trees down and started piling them over the stumps to create my hugelkultur.  

I have placed some manure on it, and will place more before I put some of my compost on.  Lastly I'll mound some soil over the top and let it mature until planting time.  I'm excited about the process and hopeful the benefits are as good as promised.  More to come.

Busy Spring

A lot has happened since my last post.

On May 6th, Susan and I closed on purchasing 20 acres of the property.  We are no longer just tenant farmers, we are the owners!  Only 360 more payments and we'll own it free and clear.

The asparagus which had been transplanted, has now been transplanted outside to it's permanent bed.  Nineteen plants were moved outside.  A couple got bound up in their container and I broke the root ball.  Those seem to be suffering, but I am looking forward to seeing how the rest work out over the first year.

Two weeks ago we planted Gracie's garden.  It is ten rows that are only about five feet long.  It has some corn, green beans, lettuce, carrots among other things.  It also has her lima and pinto beans.  They were a school experiment last year, and we kept all the seeds that developed off the one school seed to replant this year.  Some are already germinated!

Yesterday Susan and I planted the rest of the garden.

• 9 tomato plants
• 9 potato holes
• 6 peppers
• 1 watermelon mound
• 2 zucchini mounds
• 4 cucumber mounds
• 4 long rows of corn
• 4.5 rows of green beans (including three types of our own harvested seeds)
• 1/2 row of snap peas
• 1 row of radish
• 1 row of carrots
• 1 row of onions
• 1 row of green onions
• 1 row of kohlrabi
• 1 row of spinach
• 1 row of mesclun lettuce
• 1 row of romaine lettuce
• 1 row of brussels sprouts

Now the real fun begins.  Weeding!

Transplanting Asparagus

In an earlier post I commented that most of my asparagus germinated at the three week mark, as might be expected.  I looked at my calendar again and realize it was only two weeks.  The problem I am having is I didn't get a good enough light, nor get it low enough, and I am ending up with leggy asparagus.  This picture shows where I have piled up some dirt around the stem to help support it.  It really doesn't look too bad in this picture, it was really drooping prior to my efforts.

I decided my best course of action was to transplant.  As you see in the picture above, I used a pretty deep container for my seed starting.  Turns out, the root as all the way to the bottom.  I didn't think asparagus had a deep root system, but I could be wrong.  This shot of McDonald's cups is the result of my transplanting.  I put the root pretty near the bottom of the cup to allow room to bury a decent amount of the leggy stem.  I even buried some of the ferns.

I am hopeful that this will help strengthen the plants and that the larger container will give it more room to properly root.

My concern is that this seems a lot like the corn I started last year that didn't end up doing well at all.  Their wasn't a real root ball on most of these plants when I transplanted them, so I am afraid of shock too.

Fingers crossed, as this is a project I really want to turn out well.

One Of These Things Is Not Like The Others

My elation over my first, and early, asparagus was misguided.  As you can see from the picture, now many asparagus seeds have germinated.  That first sprout doesn't look like the others.  I'm thinking we had a rogue seed in our potting soil.  Anyone have any ideas on what it may be?

The Future of Asparagus is Brighter

I put light on the newly sprouted asparagus last night.  During the day yesterday we had a lot of activity and have a dozen sprouted so far.  There are 6 from the 2013 crop and 6 from the 2012 crop.  The germination rate is much higher so far on the 2013 crop.

I'm looking forward to seeing if that trend continues over the next couple weeks.

Asparagus Germinates In Record Time

When I planted 60 asparagus seeds on Feb 25th, I was sure I would be watering nothing but dirt for three to six weeks.  Then after just two weeks I saw this!

Now on the 20th day I have three more that poked up.  I need to get light on them soon, but expect many more everyday now that we have hit the three week mark.

Asparagus; Part Deux

In my post from September 23rd, I referenced planting aspargus.  Today I planted the other half of the saved seeds.  There were quite a few more from 2012 than from 2013, but in all I planted over 60 seeds in a seed tray indoors.

My goal is to see which method works better.  Direct seeding in the fall or starting indoors.  I am also testing whether the dried seeds or fresh seeds work better, but only in the direct seeding experiment. 

Look for pictures as we begin to see them sprout.

In my last few posts I mentioned the woodshed and my attempts to clean it up and make it a usable space.  I still haven't put the wood burning stove in, but I did get all my wood working equipment in place.  I also got the old barn doors from a building in Crawfordsville and mounted those.  

This picture shows the doors from the inside.  The day we put them up, I wouldn't leave the building because I had never been inside of it with the door closed.  All cleaned up and with these beautiful doors I just couldn't leave so I cleaned up and organized a little more.

 This picture is from the outside.  The table will move, it was just a work surface during construction.  At first I was going to paint the entire building and doors white.  But when I put them up, I realized that I like the contrast and may repaint the entire building, but white for the building and red for the doors.

Interesting story about where the doors came from.  The building I work in was originally the heating plant for the city of Crawfordsville.  Originally on that site was a cabin owned by Ambrose Whitlock.  From that cabin were sold land parcels, one of which was the east half of the southwest quarter of Section 34 in Hendricks County.  So the doors on a building where Daniel Kiger purchased his parcel of land, now are in use on that very piece of land.

I find that to be oddly coincidental, and somewhat fortuitous that the Lord has brought me to this position in life with a chance to salvage these doors.

Next up, the wood stove.  Because we need heat as winter approaches.

Fall Is Upon Us

It's October and I am busy with the changing of seasons.  I am trying to wrap up gardening close up and winter prep, organizing the garage and wood shed to use during winter, and trying to hunt from time to time.

We are still waiting for that first kill.  We have been out hunting (it's bow season since October 1st here in Indiana) but haven't shot any.  Luckily we have seen quite a bit of activity, just not in range.  I feel this will be a good year if we are just patient and persistent.

I tilled up the majority of the garden yesterday.  I would like to say that finalizes that season, but I still have to knock down tomato plants, put away the gardening bench, and store the tomato cages.  Seems like there is always a lot to do, and never enough time to do it.  Job security anyway.

I am also in process of building a little lean to off of my new wood shed. That will allow for some dry storage of things we don't really need inside the shed.  Then we can reorganize and make room for the new-to-me wood stove in the shed!  That way I can stay warm when working and we can make better use of the space as our hunting shack.

Changing Seasons

Yesterday was the official start of fall.  Coincidentally, I was spending the last week preparing for my own change of seasons.  Other than some tomatoes, my garden is harvested. I have knocked down most of the plants and spread compost in preparation for tilling it under.

There a few other things that needed done to prepare for next years garden.  On Tuesday I planted the garlic.  This year I had volunteers come up, so I kept all of them.  I had nine heads plus seeds from one scape.  Now I have four rows planted with zero additional cost.

In another effort to save money on buying seeds and plants, Grace and I gathered seeds on Saturday.  She had one Lima seed and one pinto seed from school.  We planted them and we were able to get a few seeds to grow more next year.

We collected green beans too.  We labeled them because I collected the very first pods this year, but didn't let them dry on the vine.  I want to see if that makes any difference in how well they germinate.

We collected asparagus seeds as part of our other experiment.  We planted half of them immediately and saved the other half.  We also planted half the dried seeds that I collected last year.  For more on that project, watch http://youtu.be/7ZEwT0n5enA

Lastly I grabbed a few good tomatoes and scraped the seeds out onto a paper plate to dry.  All my tomatoes were grown from seed this year and I hope to do the same next year but with my own seeds.

Now that all that work is done, we can turn our attention from gathering to hunting!  Now season for deer starts next Tuesday and youth shotgun season is this coming weekend.  Time to fill the freezer.

Salsa; Canning Not Dancing

Some couples learn to dance later in life as a way to spend time together.  I don't think I have the moves for a waltz much less salsa dancing.  So instead, my wife and I spend time together by salsa canning.

Yesterday we put up 10 pints of salsa, with a bit left over for a jar that went straight in the fridge.  It was fun to work together, share a cocktail, and just chat about nothing.  With four kids and so many projects to take care of, time together is hard to come by.  Canning together seems to be one of the solutions.

When we finished we still had LOADS of tomatoes.  So we proceeded to give the Victorio Food Strainer, which we found when cleaning out the woodshed. (see previous post), a run for it's money.  This turned out to be quite messy.  If you go to the home page for Victorio Products, in the upper left corner you see model 250.  We found model 200 which doesn't have the clear extension on the trash chute and doesn't have the wrap around guard on the strainer.  That mean tomato juice sometimes flew out of the strainer, and much like pulp, juice can fly baby!  I also had to place my compost bucket closer to the sauce collector bucket creating a few mishaps.

But just as advertised on the website, you can put raw tomatoes in this thing and get clean strained pulp and juice, with all the seeds and skins going straight into a separate bucket.  No blanching to remove skins like when we can tomatoes.  After cooking for hours to reduce the water content, we ended up with four quart jars of beautiful tomato sauce.

That brings my haul this year to 17 quarts of canned tomatoes (think venison chili), 10 pints of salsa, 4 quarts of tomato sauce, and four pints of pickles.  Not too bad for a $36 investment in seeds.  Plus, I have collected seeds for next year, and hope to not spend anything to get the garden growing. That also doesn't count the food we have eaten straight from the garden like potatoes, corn, lettuce, leeks, and radishes.

We had strange weather this year, so we still have some late bloomers.  Specifically, green beans and some peppers.  Hopefully there will be another post later this year talking about how good those taste when eaten straight from the east half of the southwest quarter!

Take Me to the Woodshed

I spent yesterday cleaning the last section of the building that has been called the chicken house, Grandmas garage, and now the woodshed.

This is a project started long ago but it's often interrupted by more time sensitive tasks like gardening, mowing, or harvesting.  In fact, yesterday I had to can five more quarts of tomatoes before I would allow myself to get back to this project.

As you can see, I now have a nice clean space to set up my wood shop.  As you look at this picture the space is 15 feet across the back, and it comes out 10 feet On the right side where there's a divider from the rest of the building.  On the left side the wall runs 20 feet out to the garage door opening.

I then diagramed where I would put all of my machinery and it should turn into be a nice open space.   Plenty of storage and a nice area at the front where guests can come sit and visit.  

Of course, while cleaning I found some treasures; old milk cans, a scarecrow, and even a small little bench.  

I'm pretty excited to get my stuff moved over there and be able to resume some projects that have been sitting for way too long.

Harvesting and Preserving

So far I've canned 12 quarts of tomatoes.  The Roma's ripened much earlier than the big boys. So now we are getting to enjoy the big boys while we continue to can the Roma's.  there are still a kit if tomatoes ripening so I would bet I can double the amount of tomatoes we have.

We have four pints of pickles and that is probably all we will get.  I've yet to dig into a potato mound to see how many of those we will be putting up.

We may have to go get green beans from a friend this year.  Mine are still growing but I'm not sure how much they will produce.

I did find some bell peppers finally beginning to grow so I think salsa is an option here in a couple of weeks.

It was certainly a different summer in the garden this year, but we still are able to put up quite a bit of food.  I'm pretty happy seeing as we spent a lot more time this summer on other parts of the east half of the southwest quarter.

Harvest Time

On Tuesday I picked these tomatoes.

Sunday I used some in a tomato mozzarella salad and canned the rest.  I started with five quarts, but when I opened the pressure cooker, the bottom of one jar had blown off.  Never seen that before. 

I also made three pints of pickles from Grace's garden.

Even with the low temperatures this summer and a losing battle with the weeds, we are eating off the land.

We still have red potatoes, corn, green beans, and plenty more tomatoes to harvest.  Plus it will soon be puffball mushroom time and then deer season shortly after that.

The seasons change, but there is always work to do and food to be harvested here on the east half of the southwest quarter.

Crabapple Harvest

We have a rather large crab apple tree right up against our house.  I typically trim it back every year, but it is a never ending battle to keep it off the roof.  This year I was instructed to cut two major branches entirely and create more space between the tree and the house.

Taking down those limbs resulted in an early harvest of crab apples, as you can see in this picture.

I am going to save the larger ones as ammunition for a potato gun.  The smaller ones will become crab apple vinegar.  I have promised to do this in the past, but this year I really mean it.  I need it to kill the poison ivy so we no longer have to deal with the itching and scratching associated cleaning up the landscaping around the property.

Wish me luck!

Green Acres

Sometimes I think I am both characters from this old show.  From the time I get up until 5 pm, I am city life selling insurance across central Indiana.  Dress pants, dress shirt, business meetings and phone calls.

But when I get home, I turn to the country life.  Shorts, work boots, a pocket knife and a long to do list.

Rain is headed our way.  Much needed rain, but rain nonetheless.  That means activities best suited to dry weather, or aided by the rain, need to be done.

Tonight I spread some pasture mix in the new horse pasture.  Then I weeded the garden, put up poles for my peas and beans, planted more beans, squash, and corn.  Finally I trimmed the hedges at the farm house and cleaned the debris off the porch.

Not to mention I repaired a hose and took care of a couple honey do items in the front flower beds.  Finally at 9:30 I took a shower and had a salad for dinner.  Yes, it was my lettuce in the salad.

It is enough to make you tired, but really I barely notice until I sit down.  Besides, it is a good tired, and I get a lot of satisfaction from the hard work.

Gracie's Garden

Grace weeded her garden tonight.  She wasn't dressed for it but did have her gloves.

Lucky for us her cucumbers are doing great.  I didn't get any to come up.  I do have a couple tomato plants beginning to bear fruit.

Her lettuce is doing well and is six weeks later than ours so it will be nice to have here when ours runs out.

Cherry Pie

I grew up playing sports.  In basketball anyone not playing defense in order to get an easy basket was called a cherry picker.  I assumed that meant picking cherries was easy.

Sort of like the term can of corn in baseball.  When a fly ball is easy to catch, it reminded early announcers of a grocer who pulled cans of corn off the top shelf with a pole and caught them in their apron.

Yesterday I picked cherries.  Not so easy.  The limbs are small, the cherries high in the air, and there is no good place to lean a ladder.  Yet for all the trouble, I still think it is worth it.

Years ago Grandma Worrell made cherry pie with them.  We have yearned to do that ourselves.   Yet over the last couple years as soon as they got ripe, birds got them.

Yesterday we picked enough for two pies, and many more will ripen in the next couple days.  Hopefully we will get to them before the birds.  If we do, then the Worrell Reunion will be full of cherry pie courtesy of Aunt Linda.