Tea, Mushrooms and Strawberry Jam

Last week Friday, I called in sick. I woke with a very sore throat and a headache. Once I made my call, I took a few tablespoons of some yummy Elderberry Syrup (go to this site to learn how to make it) and went back to bed. I slept until 11:30 am and when I got up, I took another tablespoon of Elderberry Syrup and continued to do so every hour through the day. By 4:00 pm my sore throat was gone, but I was still tired so I took another nap. Saturday I woke with a little bit of a sore throat, but after a few more tablespoons of Elderberry Syrup it went away.

On Saturday I was still a little tired so I went shopping - online! I decided to try my hand at growing mushrooms after reading an article in Mary Janes Farm magazine. So I went to Fungi Perfecti and bought a kit to grow Oyster Mushrooms. They're good for you and I like the idea. Then I decided I needed to buy some tea. Since being diagnosed with an ulcer, I gave up black tea and I wanted to try a variety of herbal teas; but tea at the market can get pretty expensive. I went to Mountain Rose Herbs and bought 7 varieties of tea. I bought 3 oz packages of such teas as Fairytale, Dawn's Chorus, Hibiscus High, Easy Day, Evening Repose and 2 others I can't recall right now. Don't these sound like fun teas? I also went to Sustainable Seed Company and order mostly a variety of pepper seeds. My husband likes a hot red cherry pepper and they didn't carry it. I ended up going to another company Seedman and found what I needed, but they were expensive! I ended up paying $2.25 for 15 - 25 seeds, plus $3.50 shipping for only 3 types of seed.

 I've been anticipating deliveries this week and the mushroom kit and tea came today. By the way, 3 ounces of tea is A LOT. My Seedman order came Wednesday. That means I'll be busy this weekend, but I guess I didn't think that was enough to do.

Product of Puget Sound.

Pretty large package. It takes up the seat of my chair.

7 kinds of tea to try out for my favorites.

Who knew that 3 oz of loose tea was so much.

Today on my way home, the strawberry stand finally won out. I've been eyeing those juicy strawberries for a couple of weeks and I just couldn't resist anymore. You see I love strawberry jam if it's home made. And it is so easy to make. I pulled up to the stand and dug a $10 bill out of my purse. As I walked up to the stand looking at the boxes of 3 baskets the lady who runs the stand pulls a half flat out from underneath the shelf and says, "This is for you. I saw you coming." I asked her, "How much." "Ten dollars," she replied. I handed it over and left a happy camper. Oh, did my car smell good the rest of the way home. I wanted to start on the jam right away, but I hadn't done a home cooked meal all week. I decided it was best to treat my husband to baked chicken, garlic roasted potatoes and swiss chard from the garden. It was very delicious.

My mushroom kit and teas came in while I was fixing dinner, but I had other work to do. So while we watched a movie, I cleaned some strawberries to make jam. It only took about 3 baskets. Of course I ate a whole basket will I was cleaning them. Strawberry jam is soooo easy. Before starting your jam, you want to wash enough jars to contain your jam. The recipe says it yeilds 8 cups so you can use 8 eight ounce jars or 4 pints, etc. I usually wash a few extras because you never know if you may end up with a little extra. I put my jars in my boiling water bath canner and filled it about half full of water. You want your jars to be covered with an inch or two of water while processing. Turn on the heat below your canner so the water will boil and sterilize the jars. I placed the new lids in a bowl to be filled later with boiling water and I put the rings in the canner with the jars.

Then I started on the jam. You just cut the tops off the berries and mash them a cup at a time until you have 5 cups. You want it kind of chunky. Put your 5 cups of mashed berries in a pot and stir in 1 box of Sure Jell. Add a 1/2 teaspoon of butter to keep your jam from getting too foamy while it's boiling. Pre-measure 7 level cups of sugar and set aside. By now your canner should be boiling. Add a some of the boiling water to the bowl with the lids and let them sit. You can turn the heat down under the canner until your ready to process your jars of jam. Turn on the heat under the berries and bring them to a rolling boil that can't be stirred down, add the sugar all at once and return to a boil. Boil hard for exactly 1 minute. Voila - at least 8 cups of Strawberry Jam. Put your jam in your jars leaving about a 1/4 in space at the top. This is called head space. Wipe the rims so they're clean of any spilled jam, place a lid on each jar and screw a ring on to secure the lid - not too tight. Lift the jars in the canner with a special pair of jar tongs. Turn your heat back up on the canner if you turned it down and start timing. Since the jars have hot jam in them, you can start timing right away and not wait for a boil. After 5 minutes, take the jars out and place them on a towel on your counter to cool. As the jars cool, you'll hear a popping sound. Don't panic, it's just the jars sealing. In fact, if your lids don't suck down and pop, they didn't seal correctly. By 11:00 pm I had 9 and a half  8 ounce jars of delicious strawberry jam and I'm sitting here enjoying a cup of Evening Repose tea. Hmmm, life is good.

Needed equipment - note water bath canner on right; it's a great
investment.

Wide mouth funnel to keep jars from being messy.
Potato masher for berries. Jar lifter tongs, they're
rubberized to keep from scratching or breaking
the jars.

Ended up with 9 jars plus a little extra
 from about 4 baskets of strawberries.

Berries to jam in maybe an hour.

Peace and Quiet

Does anyone even know what it means anymore? We hear about water pollution and air pollution, but nobody talks about noise pollution. It would be nice to sit in our back yards and enjoy some quiet time, but between the neighborhood dogs barking, the ice cream trucks - sometimes 5 or 6 per day, and the neighbors' radios; there is no such thing anymore.

Living in the country isn't much better either. You have the sounds of water pumps running 24 hours a day, tractors and crop dusters. So you go to the mountains and if you're lucky, your camp neighbors left their radios or CD players at home. One of the quietest places I ever been is the desert.

Most of us wouldn't know what silence is. We listen to our iPods or watch TV; our cell phones are ringing or our computers are buzzing. That's right, if you listen carefully, your computer buzzes. Try listening to a whole room full of them at work. And then to top is all off, you turn on a fan at night to create white noise so you can sleep.

It's very difficult if not impossible to find a place of quiet anymore. Of course peace is a little different. Peace is generated from within. You can find peace in the midst of noise. Last week I was out in my garden and my neighbor had his Mexican music playing, but I didn't mind because I felt at peace with my world. I was content on the inside and nothing was bothering me. In fact I recognized the song even though I couldn't understand the words. "When I was a little bitty baby, my momma would rock me in the cradle. In those old cotton fields back home. I was down in Louisiana just about a mile from Texarkana in those old cotton fields back home. When those cotton fields get rotten you can't pick very much cotton in those old cotton fields back home...." Anyway, I just smiled, put in my earphones and turned on the iPod.

So what do you do for peace and quiet?

Making Our Own Potato Boxes

I asked my husband, David to help me build potato boxes for maximum production from the four flats of potato starts I had growing in my greenhouse. I had one of Russets, one Reds, one Fingerling and one Yukon Gold.

Notice the Amazon smile? My flats are made from cardboard boxes or soda flats. These plants are definitely ready to get in the ground. The picture on the right shows the sprout coming from the potato piece. When I'm ready to plant, I just gently pull the roots apart as they get all entwined. You could also plant each potato piece in a separate pot or directly into the ground if it's warm enough. We just had such a wet winter, that I started mine under a grow light in the garage.

This next picture shows the roots of the potato. Notice the small red potato in the middle? They're producing already.

So to build our boxes, we started out intending them to be 8 feet long, 2 feet wide and 2 feet high. I was actually wanting to use scrap fence boards, but David wanted the boxes to look new. (One year of sun and rain exposure would take care of that.) We went to Lowe's to price the lumber and it would cost about $80 each. That could buy alot of potatoes thus defeating the purpose of growing your own potatoes. Unless you just want to grow your own no matter the costs. But my intention is too save money so it's back to recycling fence boards. That means my boxes will only be 5 feet long now.

We started out first thing Sunday morning having purchased self-starting wood screws and using some 2x4s we had on hand. To build 4 boxes we used 4 8-foot 2x4s cut to 2-foot lengths. My husband decided to use his chain saw since it was quicker.

We cut 2 end pieces from fence boards also 2-feet long. We attached the 5-foot boards as sides to the 2x4s. I love that electric chain saw - very quiet and no smelly smoke.

Using the drill with a phillips bit makes it easy to assemble and disassemble.

Adding the ends.

Finished boxes and they're stackable.  

The area before placing the boxes.

Boxes in place.

Potatoes planted in box. You start with the bottom slats on the box. Then as your potatoes grow and you add straw, compost or sawdust,  you just add more boards until you reach the top. By the time you harvest - once the potatoes bloom and the plants start to wilt - you have a box full of potatoes. (I'm glad the boxes weren't longer than 5 feet because they would have been hard to move.)

Now that my potatoes are planted, it's time to practice a little companion planting. The concept of companion planting is to plant crops together that benefit each other in some way wether by chasing away pests or promoting better growth. So I planted onion sets all along the front and on the west end. Then I planted Bok Choy and cabbage in front of the boxes. Mixing plants is also a way to avoid insect pests as they get confused by the different plants. (Do not plant potatoes near tomatoes.) And voila, my work is done. Now we just had to build 4 more to accomodate all my potato plants. I still had some plants leftover for my grandson and my mom.

My little friend Christopher modeling my first box. Don't know
what the deal is with the mouth.

Big brother Ricky had to join in. Now they're just showing off.

Gardening - Therapy for the Soul

Today I was transplanting tomato plants into larger containers and I started thinking about my gardening experiences.

As I mentioned in a previous post, my mother always had a garden and would can our extra vegetables. My mother grew up on a farm and for her it was just natural to have a garden. It was also very common in those days to grow your own food. We had vegetables and a salad or some type of pickles with every meal. I don't remember much else although I probably helped pull weeds in that garden. I did pick wild strawberries, crabapples, wild grapes and pulled wild onions that grew in the surrounding woods. These were nature's bounty without a lot of effort on my part that I enjoyed.

When we left Wisconsin, we moved around every year or two and my mom didn't always plant a garden. Once I reached my later teens, my parents started gardening again. I remember one time bringing home some pig manure from my boyfriend's farm. I was supposed to be really good for the crops, but it sure did stink.

Up to this point, Mom planted her garden in the standard way of rows that they could irrigate. Then my dad started reading gardening magazines like Mother Earth News and Organic Gardener. He began trying different techniques and methods for increasing yields, cutting down on weeds and conserving water. Pretty soon I was reading those same magazines and helping Dad in the garden.

Although I was exposed to gardens as I grew up, I didn't plant my own garden until I was almost through my first pregnancy. We lived in a small house across from Mooney's Grove Park in Visalia, California. I had planted a small plot behind the house. I don't really remember what I planted. I just remember sitting on the ground cross-legged and turned sideways to pull weeds since I couldn't lean forward over my stomach. What I do recall is how peaceful I felt as I sat there pulling weeds.

My next garden was located behind the garage of our house on Zumwalt in the country. I had gone through a divorce and remarried; things had really changed in my life. However, I still had this inate desire to grow a garden and can my surplus vegetables. My mom never really taught me how to can fruit and vegetables. I taught myself with some pointers from my husband's paternal grandmother. She had some great recipes she shared with me. I also decided to return to college where I earned an AA degree in Ornamental Horticulture. I learned many techniques that I still utilize to this day.

When we moved into town, I went several years without a garden. But the desire set back in and now I have half of my back yard fenced off for gardening. I'm very glad for the heritage and experience in gardening. I feel like I have an advantage as our economy is forcing so many people to grow vegetables to supplement their grocery budget. We enjoy good vegetables that are healthy and grown without pesticides, but the greatest benefit I still gain is peace of mind. Gardening is therapy, both physical and emotional.

Shorts - Smart Grandson; Plant More Than You Need; Volunteers; Beet Bounty

Here are some short blogs about a variety of things.

Smart Grandson
I have a very, very smart grandson. His name is Dylan Hunter. I always knew he was smart, but yesterday he really drove it home.

You see I got home from work to my son-in-law cooking carne asada tacos for us for dinner. After dinner, Dylan wanted the grand tour of my garden. He loves to grow things himself. Last Christmas when I asked him how he learned so much about gardening, he said he did research on the internet. See? Smart! Anyway, we walked around the garden and he asked some very intelligent questions. Then I showed him my seed starting set up in the garage.

Pretty soon it was getting dark and time for him to go home and do his math homework. He said he's learning his mutltiplications. He also likes reading. He told me of various books he's been reading. One was Island of the Blue Dolphins.

So what impressed me so much? It was when he started telling me about expressions, idioms, similies, metaphores, hyperbole, etc. He could define them all! And give examples. I told him his grandpa is very good at hyperbole. Hmmm. I think I like the word hyperbole - it just rolls around in your mouth and sounds fun;)

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Plant More Than You Need

I was reading a lady's blog in which she detialed exactly how many plants of each vegetable that she was going to plant like 1 squash plant, 10 feet of beets, etc. and this was supposed to be enough to feed a family of four. My point? What happens if squash bugs eat your one and only squash plant.

I have learned over the years to plant more than you need; especially if you are starting your own seed for tomatoes, peppers and other plants that you might normally buy from a nursery. Why do I say this? Here are some examples of what could go wrong and severely limit your yields:

1. You plant your seed under a plant light and you let the seed starter mix dry out - your sprouted seed could dry up and die.

2. Your seed sprouts and starts to grow. You decide to sprinkle it to water it and suddenly your seedlings wilt. They've been attacked by a fungal disease called "damping off". Always fill your tray below your seedlings with water and let the water wick up from the bottom of the pots.

3. Your seedlings are strong and you've got at least 2 true leaves on each plant. So you transplant to larger pots and prepare to place outside. If you are not very, very careful it is easy to damage the young plant by pinching the stem or breaking it. Try handling the plant by holding the leaf. If it breaks off, new ones will grow to replace the leaves. If you break the main stem, you're pretty much out of luck.

4.Your ready to take your seedlings outside and you place them in direct sun. The next day their all wilted and brown. You need to slowly condition your transplants to the sun, so start them in a shady area, then move them to morning sun and eventually all day sun.

5. You've conditioned you plants and you plant them in the garden. Along comes a frosty night or a freak sleet storm and there go your new plants. Cover your plants with milk cartons or juice bottles which have the bottoms cut off. Anything that will allow the light in and keep some heat in at night. Be sure to leave the the cap off to allow some circulation. These covers work like a mini greenhouse and help maintain high humidity. Once all danger of frost is gone, take the covers off.

6. Your plants are growing strong and the pests attack. If you are trying to maintain an organic garden, don't reach for the pesticides. There are many alternatives and I'm not listing them all. One thing that is crucial to preventing an attack in the first place is to have healthy, strong plants. Pests will attack the weakest plants. So work lots of compost and fertilizer into your soil before you plant and continue side dressing through the growing season. You can also test your soil to see what is missing and add the needed elements.

7. Your plants are healthy and you've kept control of the pests. You've got beautiful crops and the gopher decides to munch your root crops or just dig holes in the middle of your vegetable rows so when you water half your garden sinks into the holes.

8. Your dog decides he wants to hunt that gopher and trenches up all your crops as he follows the gopher's tunnels.

I have had all of these problems at one time or another so my solution is to grow more than you need if you have the room for it. You can always give away your surplus once you've canned and frozen all you want.

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Volunteers

I'm not referring to people who work for free. I'm talking about nature's bounty; those free plants that come up in your garden. You may have let some plants go to seed and with tilling your soil and preparing to plant your spring garden, they show up unexpectedly. You can let them grow where they come up or you can transplant them to where you want them. Some plants I've had come up as volunteers are tomatoes, basil, sorrel and borage. My newest volunteers are the 18 squash (or maybe cucumber) seedlings that came up where my compost pile was over winter. What will I do with all those plants? Read the section above.

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Beet Bounty

Remember those beets I harvested? I cleaned the leaves and removed the stems ending up with my large canner full of fresh uncooked leaves. Then I blanched them for freezing. Blanching means you drop your vegetable into boiling water for a specific length of time. You start timing as soon as the vegetables go in the water. And work in small, managable batches. Beets require 2 minutes. Then you plunge them into ice water for the same amount of time they were in the boiling water. Out of the whole sinkful of greens I ended up with 6 bags of beet greens for the freezer. Each bag will serve 2-3 people.

Now I didn't toss all those beet stalks. No I decided to pickle them. I searched the internet for a recipe and couldn't locate one. So I followed a recipe for pickled poke salad stocks. I cooked the stems in slightly salted water for 15 minutes. Then I put them in canning jars. I poured a pickling syrup of 2 cups vinegar to 2 cups water and 2 tablespoons of sugar over the stalks to within a half inch of the rim. I wiped down the rims and put the lids on the jars. Then processed them in a boiling water bath canner for 5 minutes. I started timing as soon as the jars went in the canner.

Next I'll be canning the beet roots. The roots can be kept for 2 to 3 weeks in a refrigerator but don't wash them, just leave them dirty until you're ready to cook them. If I decide to pickle the beets, I will use the water bath canner; but if I decide to can them in water, I will need to use my pressure canner as low acid foods will spoil if processed in a boiling water bath canner.

So those are my shorts for today.

Beet Harvest

The beets I planted last fall were trying to go to seed so I decided to pull them up today. Plus I wanted to use the section of the garden where they were planted. I ended up with a heaping wheelbarrow full of beets including the tops. After cutting the tops loose, I only ended up with about 4 gallons of roots. I could have had more if I would have done a better job of thinning during the winter. So it's my fault the harvest wasn't larger.  But I ended up with a sink full of the tender center leaves and another sink full of stalks of older leaves.

  

I separate the greens out because the young tender greens will cook faster. You can save the stalks too and cook them together or separately. If you want to cook them together, start the stalks first for about 5 minutes and then add the greens. I found some pretty good recipes for beet  greens at Simple Recipes and you can also try fixing them like you would any other "greens" recipe. To me they're milder than mustard or collard greens and more buttery tasting.

A tip that my Aunt Cecile in Canada taught me was to cook your beet root before peeling. The skins will slip right off. Also cut the top about 2 inches above the root to prevent all the juice from "bleeding" out of the root while cooking. Then cook in water that just barely covers them in a saucepan until tender when pierced with a knife or fork.

Beets belong to the same family as chard and spinach. The greens have a higher content of iron than spinach. Maybe that's why I feel much more energetic the day after eating beet greens. The greens have a higher nutritional value than its roots. But my friends and family enjoy my canned pickled beets and I think my husband prefers the roots. Beets are also loaded with vitamins A, B1, B2, B6 and C as well as calcium, magnesium, copper, phosphorus, sodium.

Its iron is of the highest and finest quality which makes it great for building blood. Both roots and greens are excellent for cleansing the toxins we're exposed to on a daily basis.
Here is an additional list of benefits:
Acidosis: Its alkalinity is essential and effective in combating acidosis.


Anemia: The high content of iron in beets regenerates and reactivates the red blood cells and supplies fresh oxygen to the body. The copper content in beets help make the iron more available to the body. A great blood builder.

Atherosclerosis: This wonderful crimson juice is a powerful solvent for inorganic calcium deposits that cause the arteries to harden.

Blood pressure: All its healing and medicinal values effectively normalizes blood pressure, lowering high blood pressure or elevating low blood pressure.
Cancer: Betaine, an amino acid in beet root, has significant anti-cancer properties. Studies show that beets juice inhibits formation of cancer-causing compounds and is protective against colon or stomach cancer.

Constipation: The cellulose content helps to ease bowel movements. Drinking beets juice regularly will help relieve chronic constipation.

Dandruff: Mix a little vinegar to a small cup of beets juice. Massage it into the scalp with your fingertips and leave on for about an hour, then rinse. Do this daily till dandruff clears up. Warning: you will smell awful during this hour!

Detoxification: The choline from this wonderful juice detoxifies not only the liver, but also the entire system of excessive alcohol abuse, provided consumption is ceased.

Gastric ulcer: Mix honey with your beets juice and drink two or three times a week on an empty stomach (more frequently if your body is familiar with beets juice). It helps speed up the healing process.

Gall bladder and kidney ailments: Coupled with carrot juice, the superb cleansing virtues are exceptional for curing ailments relating to these two organs.

Gout: Another ailment that can be greatly helped by the cleansing that beets have to offer.

Liver or bile: The cleansing virtues in beets juice is very healing for liver toxicity or bile ailments, like jaundice, hepatitis, food poisoning, diarrhea or vomiting. A squeeze of lime with beets juice heightens the efficacy in treating these ailments.

Varicose veins: In similar ways that it helps to keep the elasticity of arteries, regular consumption of beets juice also helps prevent varicose veins.

(Health info courtesy of Juicing for Health.com)

So whether you grow your own; or buy beets at the farmers market or grocery store don't throw away the tops - cook them! You'll get twice as much for your buck. Just remember that you ate beets when you visit the bathroom and don't freak out due the red color in your toilet. Ewwww.