The Thinning List

The items on my list to be thinned included: shallots, green onions, turnips, beets and carrots.

I didn’t have many shallots and green onions to thin which was a good thing because in my opinion, they are the worst plants to thin.  They break easily and are deeply rooted.  I lightly thinned them, leaving about a fingers width between them.  They’ll hopefully need to be thinned again but by then they’ll be big enough that we can use the ones being pulled.

When I thinned the turnips I did so very liberally.  Their roots were just starting to develop into turnips so they came out easily.  When thinning the turnips I couldn’t just start pulling plants.  My turnip row consisted of a variety of plant sizes and I wanted to keep the healthier, large plants so I had to look ahead and plan what to pull and what to keep.  I tried to space them about a hand’s width apart.  Depending on how well they grow they may need more thinning; if they do, we should be able to eat what I thin the second time around.

Between the shallots, onions and turnips there was only about one full row (approx 35 ft) of plants to thin.  I was able to do this one night after work.  The carrots and beets took a lot long than an evening to thin.  I have one row of red beets, half a row of golden beets, and two rows of carrots; that’s approximately 55 feet of beets and 70 feet of carrots that needed to be thinned.  To make matters worse, the rows were thick with plants.  It took me two afternoons to accomplish this task, and what a back breaking task it was, but at least now I can say it is done.

Because the beets and carrots were so over crowded, I didn’t have to worry much about pulling out the larger plants because they were all similar in size.  If I did come across a larger, more established plant, more so in the beets, I worked around it removing the smaller ones instead. 

I spaced the carrots about a finger’s width apart and the beets about three fingers width apart.  The carrots are a little close together but as they grow we’ll start to eat them and what we pick to eat we’ll do so as if we were thinning them.  I think the beets are spaced far enough apart so they shouldn’t need to be thinned again.

Out of everything I thinned, there was nothing that would have been worth eating… except for one small bunch of carrots.  Thankfully the thinning is done and now things have a chance grow and produce.

Thinning the Root Veg

This is a blog I’ve had in my head for too long so I figure its time to sit down and type it out.

Almost two weeks ago I finally managed to do my thinning in the garden.  It was a task that was well overdue but because of all rain it was impossible to do.  It was still quite wet when I did the thinning: my fingers were constantly caked with wet dirt and my butt was soaked right through from sitting on the ground.  It wasn’t the most comfortable experience but at least the bugs weren’t too bad and the sun was shining.  In a way it was a bit of a blessing that it was so wet as the plants I pulled released from the dirt easily.  Last year when I did my thinning I had to water everything first or I won’t have been able to remove anything; the dirt was so dry and hard it was like pulling the plants out of concrete.

When I do my thinning I wait until the plants are a decent size and the roots of the surrounding plants can handle being disturbed without damaging anything. If you thin your plants by pulling when they are too small you can do more harm then good.  I’ve read on other blogs and garden websites that the best way to thin is by cutting the plants at dirt level when they are extremely young.  I’m not to sure what to think about this, I would probably get carried away and cut too much and then end up with no plants.  I prefer to pull the plants and do so when they are larger because then I can work around “dead spots” and actually get a grip on something.

Thinning plants can be a tedious task but is something that needs to be done.  How heavily you seed in the spring determines how much plants you need to thin.  I tend to seed quite heavily which makes more work for me as I end up having to pulling a ridiculous amount of plants.  Every year I tell myself next year I won’t seed so heavily but I always seem to forget.

Twisted Carrots - a sign of over crowding

When you’re done your thinning your garden can look quite different, mine looked a little anemic.  Thankfully it’s something that is worth your time doing.  It doesn’t make sense but by actually decreasing the number of plants you are increasing your yield.  It’s also amazing how much the remaining plants will grow once they have room.  In the time since I did my thinning the plants look much larger and healthier; hopefully they are starting to develop actual vegetables now.

Before Thinning the Beets & Carrots

After Thinning the Beets & Carrots

Friday Night Special: Fresh Broccoli

Friday at our house is normally Pizza Night. Tonight we are straying from this and having a “proper” dinner: BBQ pork chops, egg noodles and broccoli.  The reason for this - the broccoli in the garden is threatening to flower so it’s time to harvest and eat it.

Broccoli starting to flower

Broccoli Flowers

This will technically be my second picking of broccoli; a few weeks ago I picked a few small pieces because they were starting to flower.  After being picked and washed they sat in the fridge for a few days and started to wilt so I want to eat this batch right away.

I learnt some interesting facts about broccoli this year.  I learnt that it prefers a cooler climate and will flower quickly in warmer temperatures, that when you pick the main stock of the plant it will start to grow other floret’s where the leaves meet the stock, when you remove the florets from the plant do so by cutting on an angle so water doesn’t pool on the cut stem or it will rot, and that when you get big leafy plants with little florets if you break off the big leaves the florets will grow larger quicker.  I also learnt that I can plant the plants a lot closer together and that I need a lot more plants if I want more than a few meals.

This year I only planted 4 plants: two are extremely stunted, one is mediocre at best, and one is flourishing.  All four plants came from the same greenhouse, were planted at the same time, and were the same size at planting so I don’t know what happened.  I have a feeling the roots may give me some insight into this, but that will have to wait until we pull the garden in the fall.  Since only one plant is producing anything significant, hopefully we will still be able to get more broccoli this year.

Surprisingly I didn’t have any trouble with bugs in the florets – knowing my luck next year this probably won’t be the case.  Because I was worried about the bugs I was a proactive and keep my plants dusted with DE and this seems to have done the trick.

Like most vegetables we eat with a meal, we steam broccoli.  The fresher it is the faster it cooks and the more vibrant the color is.  We usually serve it will a little Becel and occasionally some grated cheese.  We like to make veggie trays with dip and also eat a lot of raw broccoli this way but I didn’t think my harvest will extend past this dinner.



My only happy plant.



Empty Plant and Harvested Broccoli



Anyway, here’s to the first feast of our garden fresh broccoli! Cheers!

Swiss Chard Is On The Menu

Last night we had Swiss Chard from the garden for the first time this season and it was absolutely amazingly. 

We eat a lot of Swiss Chard fresh out of the garden in the summer.   Like most leafy vegetables, it is full of vitamins and minerals, iron included.  I find the flavor fairly mild and the fresher it is, the better it tastes.  You may find that it makes your teeth feel fuzzy and that they squeak if they rub together: this is because of all the minerals in it.

When cooking Swiss Chard it can be boiled, steamed (our preference) or sautéed.  I’ve never heard of anybody eating it raw but I’m sure people do.  If you wanted to get creative with it, I’ve heard of people using the larger leaves as a substitute for cabbage when making cabbage rolls. 

Last night we steamed it and top it with some Becel, Steve added pepper to his.  Some people, my parents included, like to douse it with vinegar, my dad even goes as far as putting ketchup on it. (I’m not joking.)

This is how much I picked.....

.... and this is what it cooked down to.



I find Swiss Chard pairs well with red meat.  Last night we had one of our favorite summer meals: BBQ Steak, steamed Swiss Chard, sticky rice and beans – yum!

When cooking Swiss Chard, especially if you are not boiling it, you have to clean it very thoroughly.  Because the leaves are not flat, they are quite wrinkly for lack of a better word; they tend to hold a lot of sand and dirt.  If you don’t clean it well, the grit can quickly destroy a wonderful meal.  I try to soak it at least twice; transferring it between the kitchen sinks each time to avoid contaminated the second soak with dirt from the first soak.



Above: Swiss Chard soaking

Right: sand in the sink after soak # 1



Swiss Chard is a lot like spinach but the stocks and leaf veins are thicker and they can be a little tough so it needs to be cooked a little longer than spinach.  You can get different types of Swiss Chard where the stocks and veins are different colors: mainly white, orange or red.  I grow the traditional type with the white stocks.  The white stocks make it easy to distinguish the Swiss Chard from the spinach when it’s in the freezer.

Unlike spinach, Swiss Chard tends to grow back very well and fairly quick.  You also don’t have to worry about it going to seed.  Swiss Chard is a bi-annual plant and only seeds in its second year of growth.  Because of this we are able to eat it throughout the summer and still have a decent amount to blanche and freeze in the fall.

Here's to eating a lot of fresh Swiss Chard in the month(s) to come!

The Art of Blanching

Because of the large volume of vegetables we get from the garden, it is impossible to eat everything fresh.  Last year to preserve our harvest we stored the carrots and potatoes in the cold room, canned the excess tomatoes, pickled the beets,  and froze the peas, beans, turnips, spinach, swiss chard and remaining zucchini.  In order to preserve the taste and quality of the vegetables that were frozen (excluding the zucchini) we blanched them first.

What is blanching?  Blanching is a cooking process which is intended to enhance the color, flavor and texture of vegetables.  Blanched vegetables are quickly cooked in boiling water (or steamed) and are then “shocked” by being plunged into an ice cold bath that immediately stops the cooking process.  When blanching vegetables they are not cooking completely, the cooking process is merely started and then abruptly stopped. 

Blanching vegetables before freezing is highly recommended.  Blanching will neutralize any bacteria and enzymes in the food which could cause it to go bad.  If done properly, it will also ensure that your vegetables stay flavorful and colorful in the freezer.  If vegetables are frozen without being blanched they tend to discolor and the thawed product will likely be a mushy, ill tasting mess.

Over the past few years I’ve learnt the art of blanching vegetables.  Here are a few key points that I’ve learnt.

1)      Not all vegetables are blanched for the same amount of time.  Different preparations also affect the blanching time.  If you blanche vegetables too long or not long enough they won’t freeze well and your time and work will have been wasted.

(I was originally going to include a chart of vegetables and blanching times but the list became quite extensive.  It is best to research to necessary blanching time before getting started:  my most reliable source is my Joy of Cooking Cookbook, but if my laptop is handy I usually head straight to the internet.  Be careful though because not everything on the internet it correct!)

2)      Have lots of ice and don’t be skimpy with it.

3)      Be 100% prepared before you start.  Before I start I make sure of the following: my vegetables are cleaned, chopped and ready to go, I have the biggest pot I can find ¾ full of water heating, a kettle of hot water to top off my pot if needed, the biggest bowl I can find full of super cold water and ice, extra ice, strainers, a spare bowl, something to take the veggies out of the boiling water, and a timer.

We have an Eastman Outdoor Wok Burner that we use when we do our blanching.  It would be nice to be inside in the kitchen but the burner works incredibly fast and all the “wet” mess is left outside and I don’t have to worry about getting water on the hardwood. 

Blanching Steps:

1)      Once your water is boiling, place a batch of the vegetables into the boiling water for the desired time.  Make sure your vegetables BOIL for the specified time.  If you try to do too much at once you’ll reduce your water temperature and it’ll take longer to recover.  In order to blanche properly, your water must be boiling for the specified time.  If your water cools, wait for it to come back to a boil before starting your timer.  (When you blanche multiple batches, depending on the vegetable, your water may get dirty or foamy.  If this happens you should dump it and start again with fresh water.)

2)      Once the blanching time has expired, remove the vegetables quickly and carefully from the boiling water and place into your ice water. (I use a Chinese Brass Spider Skimmer to scope and strain the vegetables before placing them in the ice water.  The more hot water you can remove from the vegetables before placing in the ice bath the better as the hot water will warm your ice water therefore slowing the cooling process.  Because I’m outside I don’t care about getting water on deck, if you are inside hold a bowl below your scope to catch the hot water.)

3)      Leave the vegetables in the ice bath until they are completely cool.  It is best to wait to blanche more vegetables until your ice bath is empty (unless you have multiple ice baths).  I usually eat a piece of the vegetable to see if it’s completely cool.

4)      Once cooled, remove from the ice bath and place in a strainer to drain.

5)      Once drained, portion and freeze.  When I portion my vegetables I take a dinner plate and put how much I think one person would eat on the plate, double it (there’s only two of us) and then in the bag it goes.  (I vacuum seal everything.)  Sometimes I use my scale to ensure equal portions but because of the residue water in some vegetables (i.e.: Spinach & swiss chard) the scale isn’t always a good gauge to determine equal portions.

Blanching can be timely process, especially if you have lots to do, but well worth in it the end. 

Ensure you have lots of time to complete the task before starting so you don’t end up like me blanching and freezing vegetables at 10:00 pm on a Sunday night. J

Here are some pictures of when I blanched the spinach earlier this week.



Removing the spinach from the soaking tub



The Set-Up

Boiling the spinach

Removing the spinach from the boiling water

Placing the spinach in the ice bath

Spinach cooling in the ice bath



Deciduous Dilemma

Let’s talk about trees for a few minutes. 

We love trees and wish we had more on our acreage.  Thankfully we do have a decent amount of trees; most new acreages in the Peace Country are built on land that was once farmed and have very few, if any trees.

Our mix of trees consists of a few different species of Poplar, Spruce and Pine.  They are scattered around our acreage but most border the north property line or can be found in the lawn in the NW section of our acreage.  Due to the abundant moisture this year they are all flourishing and boasting an extraordinary amount of new growth.  We pay special attention to our Pine trees in attempt to keep the Pine Beetles away:  we attach Verbenone pouches in early summer and spray them with Carbaryl throughout the year. (If we lost our Pine trees we’d be devastated.)

We would like to have more trees along our east property line but trees take forever to grow and are ridiculously expensive to buy.  I’m very excited about something I found that I hope will be a solution to our tree predicament and feel the need to share.

My solution to our tree predicament is this: Rooter Pots from Lee Valley:

www.leevalley.com/en/garden/page.aspx?c=&p=46938&cat=2,47236

I bought these a few years ago and was reluctant to try them because I wasn’t sure how well they would work, if they would work at all.  About a month ago I dug them out and put them to the test.  I placed the pots on branches of a fast growing type of Poplar and now I can proudly say I have more 5 trees that are about 3 feet tall.

This system and method for starting new trees works amazing well and I would recommend it to anyone who has and wants more deciduous trees.  In the instructions it says it can take up to 8 weeks for the trees to root and mine rooted in about a month.  If I don’t sit around too long and get my butt in gear I should be able to get a second batch of new trees before the fall. 

I’m so excited about how well it worked I have to show you the results.




Rooter Pot on Tree

             

Close Up of Rooter Pot

Rooter Pots removed from main tree



Close Up, see all the red roots

Cutting removed from Rooter Pot

Close up of roots in Rooter Pot

new tree being planted



2 of my new trees



Harvesting “Popeye”

Somehow, I don’t know how, but somehow during the cool, wet weather my spinach grew a foot and went to seed.  Because of the timing of it going seed and the weather conditions, it had to wait to be dealt with.  This wasn’t a big deal as after spinach goes to seed it’s still fine to eat; some say it gets bitter but I can’t really tell the difference.  I find it interesting though how the leaves change shape after it goes to seed.



Spinach gone to seed



I’m not a huge spinach fan, I prefer swiss chard, that being said, I do still grow it.  We prefer to eat our spinach cooked and use it in dips and spreads.  Our preferred method is to lightly steam it and serve it as a side dish at dinner.  (We top with a blob of butter and Steve seasons it with pepper.)

Although many people enjoy spinach salad I’ve never been a fan of it; I was never fond of the taste or texture of raw spinach.  People rant and rave about the health benefits of spinach and how you loss all the nutrients when it’s cooked – I say “PLLLBBBB” to that. (That was me sticking my tongue out.)  Spinach lightly cooked still has lots of nutrients and in my opinion is safer to eat than raw spinach – remember the many salmonella outbreaks from people eating raw spinach?

 In fact, did you know that raw spinach is hard to digest and that the nutrients are more easily absorbed if it’s cooked? Also, did you know that many of the nutrients that make a salad healthy are fat soluble, meaning that they must be eaten with some kind of fat in order to be absorbed?  So either add that Ranch Dressing to your spinach salad or cook it!

Now, I understand that some people cook the crap out of their food leaving it completing depleted of anything good, but it doesn’t have to be that way.  If you boil your spinach for 20 minutes there won’t be much good left in it; but if you steam or sauté it until just wilted, you are not going to deplete it of many nutrients and then it’ll be easier on your tummy.

Since we don’t enjoy raw spinach when it’s past its prime we harvest the entire crop.  Last Sunday I spent time in the garden picking the remaining spinach so that it could be cleaned, blanched and frozen.   After a bit of work I can now say that I have my spinach blanched and in the freezer.  (I had originally included the fine art of blanching here but decided to post it separately.)

I don’t seem to have good luck with my spinach re-growing so after we get one crop we pull the plants and are done with it.  This year because of the cooler temperatures I’ve attempted a second planting – hopefully it won’t bolt as soon as it’s up and we’ll get a second crop for the freezer.

Zucchini 101

The number one issue people seem to have when growing zucchini is they get big plants and no vegetable.  A lack of vegetable can mean one of two things: not having a good mixture of male and female flowers, or poor pollination.  Last year, thankfully, we didn’t have either of these problems and had zucchini coming out of the whaa-zoo. 

Last year's final zucchini harvest before removing the plants



That being said, I was still concerned about actually getting any zucchini and this lead to “Zucchini Research.”  What I discovered is the key to growing zucchini lies in understanding the zucchini flower. 

To take you back to elementary school science, the flowers on most plants have both the male and female parts so in theory only one flower is needed to reproduce.   With zucchini plants, there are male and female flowers so at the very least you need two flowers to produce a zucchini. Note that the flowers are a specific gender, not the plants: one plant can have both male and female flowers. 



Female Flower Bud on the left,
cluster of Male Flower Buds in the middle



 As soon as your plants begin to produce buds you can tell if the flowers will be male or female.  The male buds are attached to the plant stems.  The female flowers are not attached directly to the stem of the plant: between the stem and the bud there is the beginning of a mini zucchini.  As the bud grows and turns into a flower, this mini zucchini will grow into a full size zucchini.  If the flower does not get fertilized, the small zucchini with shrivel up.

When you start to see buds on your plants, if the conditions are right, they will produce flowers quickly.  A few days ago I discovered some buds and tonight I see one is almost ready to open and will likely be open tomorrow.



2 Female Flowers



As far as pollination goes, if you wish to leave things to Mother Nature you need to have bees around.  Because we have a huge raspberry patch in the garden and have 30 acres of clover 20 feet away from the garden, having enough bees around is not a problem.  If you do have trouble with pollination, you can use a Q-Tip to transfers the pollen from the male flower to the female flower. 

Something interesting to note about bees is that they will travel up to 5 miles for food.  If you have bees that have a taste for zucchini flowers, chances are they are also visiting other zucchini flowers in the neighborhood.  Last year my first flower to open was a female flower and it was a while before any male flowers opened.  Somehow I ended up with a zucchini.  I know both of our closest neighbors have gardens and I know for sure one of them grows zucchini: maybe one of my neighbor’s male flowers pollinated my female flower.

If you are a bit of a worry wart like myself, if you have bees around don’t worry as your flowers will likely get pollinated.  Last year I was concerned about pollination and wanted to interfere and do the Q-Tip trick but Steve stopped me.  He firmly stated I fussing with things too much and that I needed to let Mother Nature do her thing.  Needless to say everything turned out okay and we ended up with literally dozens of zucchini.  And… out of the many, many zucchini flowers we had last year, I think there was only one that did not get pollinated - and it was a late season flower so the bees were more than likely gone already.      

To ensure a good mix of flowers for pollination it is best to grow several plants thus increasing your chances.  It also helps to grow your zucchini in a plot as opposed to rows.  Last year we planted two rows of three for a total of six plants.  This year we planted a 3 x 3 plot that consists of 6 Onyx Zucchini and 3 Vegetable Spaghetti Squash. 



Zucchini/Squash Plot



If I could offer any advice on growing zucchini it would be to be patient.  On many occasions last year I thought nothing would get pollinated, all the mini zucchinis would shrivel up and I constantly wanted to fuss with them.  Thankfully I have a husband who was very adamant about me not interfering and just like he said, everything turned out fine.

Admitting Defeat

We had beautiful weather 2 out of the 3 days on the Canada Day long weekend.  Those two nice days I spent in the garden … weeding.  I probably should have been thinning things as the weeds don’t really do any harm.  But I must admit, I wanted the weeds gone so gone they would be!  Steve offered to help on several occasions and was turned away each time – I wanted to weed my way, not his way.

After a day and a half in the garden with no end it site, I admitted defeat and asked for help.  It was a difficult thing for me to do because I knew what the outcome would be.  The area I weeded would be completely weed free, and the area I had help with would have significantly less weeds, but not be weed free.  I had to ask though, or I’d probably still be there, weeding in the muck.

As we started to work on the weeds together, things went well at first: Steve loosened the dirt with the hoe while I picked out the weeds.  We had just barely gotten started and he had to stop: he was still recovering from a sore back and using the hoe made aggravated it.  He decided to switch to the pitch fork.  This did not go so well as the work for me was more difficult than when I was doing it myself.  I had to bite my tongue not to say something as I had asked for the help.

Anyway, a few weeks ago a friend gave us his old rototiller.  Remembering the old beast hiding under the deck, Steve disappeared with it in the garage and returned half an hour later covered in grease with blue exhaust streaming behind him.  It was a beast of a machine and gassed us out while he tilled but it got the job done.  Unfortunately it still left me with all the weeds to pull out of the dirt. 

Words cannot describe how much fun it was crawling around it the fresh tilled dirt picking weeds while swatting the mosquitoes that were (key word “were”) hiding in the dirt.



99% Weed Free - July 2



When everything was done it made me feel proud to have a relatively weed free garden – even if I did break down and ask for help.  It made me realize that maybe I don’t need to do everything myself.  Maybe help is a good thing; especially if the help does things my way. ;)

Is Anybody Home??

I just realized that it’s been 12 days since my last blog and considering the duration between my previous posts, 11 days seems like a year.

On the Canada Day Long weekend I managed to get caught up on my weeding, replanted a few seeds/plants that didn’t germinate or were killed by bugs and got sun burnt (again).  I’ll blog more about that later.

Since then I’ve been afraid to go into the garden.

Why you ask? Because of the rain.  In the week we’ve received about 3.25 inches of rain, and that includes a thunderstorm that dumped ½” in 30 minutes last night.  Needless to say the garden is a bit of a mud pit.  If we stay out and let it dry, it’ll be fine; if we venture in it’ll be a mess.

Rain has definitely not been as issue this year.  Since we installed the rain gauge on May 29^th, we’ve received approximately 7.5 inches of rain, with almost half of that in the past week. I heard on the radio today that since July 1^st, we’ve received over three times the amount of rain we received for the entire month of July last year.  In fact, we’ve received so much rain that plants are starting to turn yellow and die. I can only hope that the rain is drowning all the ants and grubs in the garden.

One nice thing about the wet weekend was that it gave me an excuse to stay out of the garden.  When the weather is nice in the summer you can usually find me out in the garden, whether I want to be there or not.  After the busy long weekend outside, it was nice to have an excuse to do nothing outside.

To get out of the house, we went for a Sunday afternoon drive down Highway 40 to check out all the little streams and creeks.  This is what we saw a lot of:

These creeks are normally just a trickle that you could probably jump across or walk through without the water going over your ankle… not so much the case at the moment.

At times like this we are thankfully for our sandy soil as it wonderful in draining the rain away.  Hopefully by the end of the week things start to dry out and I can attempt some thinning, provided the bugs don’t carry me away!