Blinded By The Light

Our makeshift growlight, that is!

Noah the mini-gardener

Yes, I know. I've boasted for 2 growing seasons now that I don't need a growlight. That by rotating my precious seedlings from windowsill to windowsill throughout the day to catch maximum sunlight, my seedlings have done just fine. But the sun has decided to absolutely disappear for much of the time the past few weeks, and it's been bad news for my baby Amish Paste tomatoes. They began to droop, bend over, and in general look very, very sick.

very sad and droopy baby tomato

I panicked. My first ER action was to dose them with some fish emulsion, diluted (1 t. in about 4 cups of water). After watching them for over a day and seeing that didn't give them a magic boost, I transplanted them all into larger spaces, in case their roots were not getting enough room to breathe.

before: tiny, messy homes

after: bigger and cleaner-looking rooms..ahhhhh

Start a gardening hobby and say goodbye to perfectly manicured nails

I gave them a day in their new, larger homes and still saw little improvement. It hit me, in a sudden 'lightbulb' moment, that the sunlight had not been strong at all for days.

I don't have the cash to plunk out on some special growlight system (I'm saving pennies for other precious items, like a soaker hose). I thought to myself, 'hey, I've got this florescent fixture over the kitchen sink...I wonder if it would help? I mean, how different is a regular florescent light from a special growlight available for substantial bucks at the garden center?'

After a quick search in the garage, I came up with a setup that would get my plants close to the light source. 2 five gallon buckets (which, incidentally, still smelled of the apples I stored in them during apple picking season--I had to stop for a moment to breathe in that wonderful nostalgia), a shelf borrowed from one of our toyshelves in the toyroom, and my seed container (appropriate use for that, or what!).  I also found an empty food container of the right size to boost the seedlings up just a big more--right up to the light.

This setup has worked wonders. Within one day under the lights, our plants grew noticeably,  and they looked happier and healthier. They have reached up toward those florescent photons like their little lives depended on it. The closer I can get those babies to the light the better--in fact I read it's okay to let the leaves actually touch the light. The less effort the leaves have to make to get to the light, the more energy they can put into growing thicker instead of upwards.

I been putting the plants in the windowsills any day that we have strong sunlight, but those days have been very far and few between. So, they spend a lot of time under our little growlight system. I've had to remove the extra container by now, and soon will have to lower the plants even more, because they are growing so big.

Although it's taken some getting used to, working around the baby tomatoes is not a big deal. I spend a lot of time at the kitchen sink, so I'm getting to know each plant by heart, at my eye level. The light has always been a little too bright for me, and at just the right angle that my eyes hurt a bit when standing at that sink, but if it's helping the plants survive, I've got new tolerance for it. Leaving it on for the plants has been a challenge--I'm one of those mamas who seems to be constantly turning off unneeded lights left on by someone. I have to stop myself as I reach to turn out that kitchen sink light...it is now serving a very good purpose! And, I didn't have to go out and spend any more money that I don't have on this gardening adventure.

Baby tomatoes keep me company while washing unending piles of dishes

Take a peek at how wonderful our tomatoes look now, after bigger pots, a little fish emulsion, and a week under our growlight:

Warm Up Your Evening with a Winter Pizza

I can't think of a more appropriate winter pizza than this one! Sweet potatoes from storage, and kale from the cold frame...ingredients readily available in the middle of this long, cold season. Also, the flavor is amazing!
I was skeptical at first--kale? Sweet potatoes? Trust me, get over the doubt and try it at least once if you like either of those ingredients one bit. I'm going out on a limb and assuming you love red onions...because everybody HAS to love red onions. Right?

I found the recipe over at twopeasandtheirpod.com. Below is their exact recipe, but I altered it a bit when I made it. Though I made a full batch of dough, I used about a third of it on this pizza. Since I was only using a portion of the dough for a smaller pizza, most of the ingredients needed cut down. Also, I sprinkled dried rosemary on top instead of fresh.

Sweet Potato Kale Pizza with Rosemary & Red Onion

Yield: 1 pizza

Cook Time: 10-15 minutes

ingredients:

Your favorite pizza dough-we used this pizza dough recipe
1 large sweet potato, thinly sliced, about 1/4 inch thick
1/2 red onion, sliced
1 1/2 tablespoon olive oil, divided
Salt and pepper, for seasoning potato slices and onion
1 1/2 cups mozzarella cheese
1 1/2 cups chopped kale
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon, freshly chopped rosemary

directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Place the sweet potato slices and red onion slices in a bow and toss with 1/2 tablespoon of the olive oil. Season with salt and pepper. Place on a large baking sheet and bake for about 20 minutes, or until the sweet potatoes are soft and tender. Make sure you turn them once during the 20 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool while you prepare the pizza dough.

2. Turn the oven to 500 degrees F or as high as your oven will go. If you have a pizza stone, place the pizza stone in the oven to get hot. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the pizza dough, using a rolling pin. Roll it out to about 3/8 of an inch. Place the pizza dough on a pizza peel or pan that has been generously coated with corn meal. Lightly brush the dough with the remaining 1 tablespoon of olive oil. In a small bowl, toss the kale with balsamic vinegar. Top the pizza dough with mozzarella cheese, sweet potato slices, kale, red onion slices, and fresh rosemary.

3. Place the pizza in the oven-directly on the pizza stone, if using one, or on the oven rack. Bake for 10-15 minutes or until pizza crust is golden and cheese is melted. Remove from oven and let cool for a few minutes before slicing. Slice and serve warm.

Baby Tomatoes and Hope

One of my goals right now is to become more and more separate from industrial food. Growing lots of tomatoes seems to be one of the easiest ways to start. I used to think of tomatoes and wonder how people could eat so many of them. People who grew them in their gardens would give them away by the bags-full. I thought..just how many salads and sandwiches can I eat to use all of these before they get mushy (which happens so very quickly)? I never realized the possibility of preserving them until I tried it and saw for myself how easy it is. (If mom reads this, she may have a thing or two to say to me, namely, "Oh come on, where were you while I canned all those tomatoes every summer?" Answer: Somewhere far away from the kitchen.)

What things do I buy routinely that I could be putting up from my own tomato plants? Tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, whole tomatoes, roasted and pureed tomatoes...ketchup, even! I obtained a food mill last summer and the ease of making sauce increased ten-fold. So far I've done nothing more than freeze the sauce and diced tomatoes in freezer containers, but canning is next on the list of attainable goals. We use a LOT of canned tomatoes in our family, not to mention all the ketchup we go through. If we could provide the majority of our own tomatoes to last the whole year, not just in those glorious pick-them-straight-from-the-vine-and-die-of-happiness summer days, I think that would be an amazing step in the right direction.

Here are some pics of our growing tomato seedlings. They are started from seed that I got from rareseeds.com. A heritage variety called Amish Paste. The claim is that they produce well and that they make excellent sauce, so here's to hoping!

Also! This is our 3rd garden season starting our seeds without a growlight. Countless gardening sites assume that success will only come with growlights, but if I can do without, why not? I have big windowsills to hold the trays, and by rotating the seedlings throughout the day to catch as much sunlight as possible, they seem to do okay. In one of the following pics you'll see that on very cold days, I put a space heater (on lowest setting) under the window to keep the babies from getting frostbite. ;)

Big Orange Kitty watching over the babies

Small boy daydreaming next to the nursery

It's always hard to do...but it must be done. Culling the weakest sprouts so the hardiest one will grow into an amazing plant.

A little extra warmth on those frigid February/March mornings.

They eat up the sun and fill me with hope.

6,000 lbs of Food on 1/10th Acre

If you are insanely interested in urban homesteading like I am, you must watch this! I had briefly read about the Dervaes family before, but seeing this video amazed me. Not only are they growing huge amounts of food on very little land (enough to feed themselves and sell a bunch to local chefs), you'll also see at about 5:30 in the video that they use very little electricity (solar powered), and bio-diesel (fry oil recycled from local restaurants). Off the grid, and growing their own food, all within a crowded urban environment. These are skills that will help us ease out of the cheap energy era. The more we know and learn from families like this, the better. Watch and be inspired!

No-Bake Chocolate Chip Granola Bars

This recipe is handy because it's so quick. It is more like a sweet treat..kind of like a rice crispy treat..but it will do when Noah's begging for a granola bar and ingredients and time are running low!

I'm a firm believer that having a hand in making your own snacks
makes them taste even better!

No-Bake Chocolate Chip Granola Bars
(originally found at LaurensLatest.com)

Ingredients:

1/4 c. butter
1/4 c. honey
1/3 c. packed brown sugar
2 c. quick cooking oats
1 c. crispy rice cereal
1/2 t. vanilla
2 T. mini chocolate chips

In a large bowl, stir oats and rice cereal together. Set aside. In a small pot, melt butter, honey and brown sugar together over medium high heat until it comes to a bubble. Reduce the heat and cook 2 minutes. Pour in vanilla and stir. Pour over dry ingredients and mix well to moisten all ingredients. Pour into lightly greased small jelly roll pan {about 12x8x1} and press out to be about 3/4 inch in thickness. {If your pan isn't small enough, pack the mixture into one side. You really want to press them down so they stick together.} Sprinkle with mini chocolate chips and press down lightly. Cool on a countertop to room temperature for two hours or until the chocolate chips are set before cutting into bars. Wrap in parchment or plastic wrap and store at room temperature.

Recipe Notes: If your granola bars don't seem to be staying together when you cut them, you may have not boiled the mixture long enough...you want it to make it just past the softball stage. OR you made them too thin or you didn't pack them in tight enough. Stick them in the fridge for 20 minutes and that should help keep them together. {Be sure not to keep them in there too long or else they'll become super hard!} The next time you make them, try boiling for an extra 15 seconds or so.

Happy Valentine's Day to me!

I got a lovely stash of candy and a funny card from my husband (thanks baby), but my favorite Valentine was the one that came in the mailbox--my seed order arrived today!

Chunky Monkey Pancakes

These are a 'treat' pancake that I only make occasionally. They get devoured! I'm afraid if I make them too often, our other 'plainer' pancake recipes would get revolted against!

Chunky Monkey Pancakes
Amy (amylz)
All Recipes Servings: 9

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup skim milk
3 tablespoons butter, melted
2 eggs
1 tablespoon white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 large banana, diced
1/2 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup chopped pecans
cooking spray

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Set bowl aside. In a separate bowl, whisk together the skim milk, melted butter, eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and stir in the wet ingredients, being careful not to over mix the batter. Gently fold in the banana, chocolate chips, and nuts. Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and coat with cooking spray. Pour 1/4 cupfuls of batter onto the skillet, and cook until bubbles appear on the surface. Flip with a spatula, and cook until browned on the other side.

Noah devouring his Chunky Monkey...which is sweet enough that we don't even need syrup!

 

Students Grow and Donate Over 100 Pounds of Food

Students in the Study Garden Club sort and weigh some of their harvest to donate to the local food bank

Winter is firmly here; the sweet memories of warm weather, green grass, and a thriving garden are becoming more distant. Though new excitement comes along with snow (snow angels and subsequent snow ball fights, followed by hot cocoa indoors), the nostalgia of running out to the garden, sans shoes and socks, can hit hard. Especially for kids; a month might as well be a year--a whole winter seems a lifetime!

Will summer ever come back? To keep the memory alive, it's fun to look back at the previous growing season. Not just our own fun pictures (of which we have hundreds), but also pictures of what other people have grown.

I found this series of pictures on Facebook, and was utterly thrilled. The school, Study Elementary, is in our school system. I've driven past Study hundreds of times, but have never visited--though now I'm so fascinated by the work of the Garden Club that I'm pondering: how odd would it be for a stranger to request a visit during the growing-garden months? 

The coolest thing about the Study Garden Club is this: The club set a goal to grow and donate 100 pounds of food to our local food bank. When they tallied up their totals, they had surpassed the goal; 114 pounds of fresh produce had made its way to Community Harvest food bank. What an amazing success! I looked and found that a local newspaper noted the donation here, at this link.

Every school should have a garden, and a Garden Club with active membership.  Enjoy these pictures of Study Garden Club. My little crew of gardeners and I loved seeing what Study's students grew, and can't wait until it's time to get back out and try some new ideas for ourselves. Perhaps we will even try our hand at growing a cotton plant (as you'll see in the following pics, Study did just that) this upcoming season! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some of the fresh tomatoes donated to Community Harvest

Review: On Good Land

I stumbled on this book at the library while hunting down gardening books. Written in 1998, it describes the history of Fairview Gardens in Goleta, California.  It's a quick read with its thick, glossy pages and numerous photos (though maddeningly without captions). It's yet another example of my being late to the party (I'm an overly excited 'noob' about all things gardening and sustainable living—much has been written on the topic over the years). Lucky for me, I found it—it's a fantastic story and a perfect model of how agriculture might survive in tiny bits and pieces among unending suburban sprawl.

Right away the book captures the imagination with google-map style views of Fairview Gardens: one picture taken in 1954 and one in 1998. This 12 acre parcel of land has literally been swallowed by suburban sprawl, highways and development, yet it thrives as an organic farm.

The story of how this land was kept from being turned into development itself is an inspiring tale. Author Michael Ableman takes over as a 'manager' of the land, living in its rickety old farmhouse with his wife and new baby, and tending the small orchards and fields, though he must report to the land's long-time owners, the Chapmans. He has expensive false starts (a whole orchard of green peaches, planted, tended, and harvested with immense care, that never proved sellable) and many tough obstacles (accidentally bursting irrigation pipes and causing a flood), but nothing provides as much frustration and challenge as the neighbors. Many are outright angry and want him—and the farm--gone. They had not purchased an expensive home in a sought-after neighborhood only to learn after the fact that a rotting compost pile lay behind their yard, or that roosters would crow in the early hours. Or that a tractor would make its rounds, quite literally in their backyards.

Never knowing exactly how he would save the land from being sold by the owners to development,  Ableman charges forward, working hard and winning over neighbors who learn to love the fresh food the farm produced. Ableman never shies from reaching out to everyone around him, whether to stand up to their demands or to calmly invite them to come see for themselves what was happening on the farm. He exhibits a gutsy determination that I find admirable. There are times it seems it would be much easier to give up on this parcel of land and try his hand at farming somewhere else (at one point his father offers him family land in Deleware--a climate that would in many ways be easier to deal with). However, Ableman perseveres through setbacks and even a divorce. After over a decade of challenges, sweat, and tears, the landowners allow the 13 acres to sell (for a whopping 750k)...but NOT to the developers. Cornelia Chapman allowed Ableman and a group of committed activists in the community—who formed a non-profit organization--to purchase the land and place it in a public trust. In Ableman's words:

“Fairview Gardens was never mine—and not just because someone else held the title. I have known for a long time that its role was to be a public place. It could never be just a private farm, or someone's personal retreat back to the land. Instead, this farm has provided a way for people to reclaim a connection to one of the most important and intimate acts: growing the food that they and their children eat. Over the course of a few generations, most people have given that power away to distant farms. They let this vital process take place out of sight, losing the pleasures and the connections that come with it. ...We cannot all go back to the land, but we can provide something of the land to everyone.”

Ableman's book is succinct, and his words are powerful; none wasted. Although the book is very quick and easy to read, it doesn't lack in humor, insight, and powerful motivation.  Models like Fairview Gardens will be more and more necessary as we navigate new ideas for agriculture (namely, small community farms). I was thrilled to have happened upon such a gem, and I plan to look into the present day Fairveiw Gardens at www.fairviewgardens.org.

Wow! This corn looks so beautiful! I'd love to try growing some! -Andi

The Story of Glass Gem Corn: Beauty, History, and Hope

  By Steven Thomas |

If you’ve spent any time online lately, you might have noticed a striking photo making its rounds. Feast your eyes on Glass Gem corn: a stunning, multi-colored heirloom that has taken Facebook and the blogosphere by storm. With its opalescent kernels glimmering like rare jewels, it’s easy to see what the buzz is about. This is some truly mind-blowing maize.
For the staff at the Tucson-based seed conservation nonprofit Native Seeds/SEARCH, the viral explosion of interest in Glass Gem has been thrilling—but not surprising. As the proud stewards of this variety (along with the bioregional seed company, Seeds Trust) we are lucky enough to have grown and admired this extraordinary corn ourselves. Rest assured, this is no Photoshop sham. It is truly as stunning held in your your hand as it is on your computer screen. When you peel back the husk from a freshly harvested ear to reveal the rainbow of colors inside, it’s like unwrapping a magical present. And this is a gift that is meant to be shared far and wide.
Like many heirloom treasures, Glass Gem corn has a name, a place, and a story. Its origin traces back to Carl Barnes, a part-Cherokee farmer living in Oklahoma. Barnes had an uncanny knack for corn breeding. More specifically, he excelled at selecting and saving seed from those cobs that exhibited vivid, translucent colors. Exactly how long Barnes worked on Glass Gem—how many successive seasons he carefully chose, saved, and replanted these special seeds—is unknown. But after many years, his painstaking efforts created a wondrous corn cultivar that has now captivated thousands of people around the world.
Approaching the end of his life, Barnes bestowed his precious seed collection to Greg Schoen, his corn-breeding protégé. The weighty responsibility of protecting these seeds was not lost on Schoen. While in the process of moving in 2010, he sought out a place to store a sampling of the collection to ensure its safekeeping. Schoen passed on several unique corn varieties to fellow seedsman Bill McDorman, who was owner at the time of Seeds Trust, a small family seed company then located in central Arizona. (Today, Bill McDorman is Executive Director of Native Seeds/SEARCH.) Curious about the oddly named Glass Gems, he planted a handful of seeds in his garden. The spectacular plants that emerged took him by surprise. “I was blown away,” McDorman recalls. “No one had ever seen corn like this before.”
The story of Barnes, Schoen, and their remarkable corn is not unusual. For millennia, people have elegantly interacted with the plants that sustain them through careful selection and seed saving. This process, repeated year after year, changes and adapts the plants to take on any number of desirable characteristics, from enhanced color and flavor to disease resistance and hardiness.
The bounty of genetic diversity our ancestral farmers and gardeners created in this way was shared and handed down across generations. But under today’s industrial agricultural paradigm of monocropping, GMOs, and hybrid seeds, this incredible diversity has been narrowed to a shred of its former abundance. A 1983 study compared the seed varieties found in the USDA seed bank at the time with those available in commercial seed catalogs in 1903. The results were striking. Of the 408 different tomato varieties on the market at the turn of the century, less than 80 were present in the USDA collection. Similarly, lettuces that once flourished with 497 heirloom varieties were only represented by 36 varieties. The same held true for most other veggies including sweet corn, of which only a dozen cultivars were preserved out of 307 unique varieties once available in the catalogs. Though this data leaves some questions around actual diversity decline, the trend toward dwindling crop diversity is alarming. In just a few generations, both the time-honored knowledge of seed saving and many irreplaceable seeds are in danger of disappearing.
Though much of this diversity may be gone, all hope is not lost. The emergence of a breathtaking heirloom variety like Glass Gem reveals that the art and magic of seed saving lives on. It reminds us that we can return to this age-old practice and restore beauty, wonder, and abundance to our world. Indeed, this renaissance is already underway. The rising seed library movement is encouraging local gardeners to become crop breeders and empowering communities to reclaim sovereignty over their food. Our pioneering Seed School program at Native Seeds/SEARCH is training people from all walks of life in building sustainable local seed systems rooted in ancient traditions. And as eye-popping images of Glass Gem continue to spread around the world, Carl Barnes’ kaleidoscopic corn has become a beacon—and perhaps an inspiring symbol—for the global seed-saving revival.
To Purchase Glass Gem Seed
Many people have contacted us looking to obtain Glass Gem seed. We are currently sold out of the small quantity we had in stock, but there are plans to grow out a substantial amount this summer. Fresh seed should be available by October 2012. In the meantime, we have set up a waiting list for all who wish to purchase Glass Gem. Click here to be added to the list, and you will be notified as soon it becomes available. Native Seeds/SEARCH members will get priority access; click here to become a member. For those that have asked about its edibility, Glass Gem is a flint corn used for making flour or as a popping corn. Unlike sweet corn, it is not edible right off the cob. However, it was likely bred as an ornamental variety—for obvious reasons. Many of these exquisite ears are simply too beautiful to eat.
We encourage everyone who grows Glass Gem corn to rejoin the ritual of seed saving by setting aside your favorite selections for replanting the following year. Share seed with your friends and neighbors, organize a seed swap, or start a seed library in your community. Support Native Seeds/SEARCH in our work to conserve and protect Glass Gem corn along with the nearly 2,000 rare, aridlands-adapted crop varieties we steward in our seed bank. Your efforts and energy make a difference. As Carl Barnes has taught us, all it takes is one person to create a more colorful, diverse and abundant world—one seed at a time.

Original Article HERE