Long Overdue Hydroponic Garden Update

I took some pictures last night, while Jay was outside covering the plants in preparation for the cold, and when I realized I hadn't posted about the garden since May, I figured I should fix that.  We have been thwarted by squirrels ever since we started our garden.  They ate almost every tomato we've grown (or at least taken big bites out of them) along with a whole tower full of swiss chard as it was just sprouting.  We decided to fight with a steel cage match of sorts.

before

after

Before, the squirrels (and probably fruit rats, but we try not to think about that) had free access to all of our garden goodies.  Now, the entire set of 10 towers has been enclosed in chicken wire, including the top.  This has had a profound (and not unexpected) effect on our productivity.  Duh.






Since the drastic steps, we've been able to re-grow the swiss chard, to the point where both chickens and humans can enjoy it.  We also supplied two counties of family with lettuces on Thanksgiving.  There have been tomato feasts, cucumber festivals (of sorts) and radishes galore.  I had forgotten how much I love radishes.
I even harvested so much thyme that it took me three days with the dehydrator getting all of it preserved.  That much thyme is also a little bit nauseating to smell, by the way.  It ended up not even filling a quart sized mason jar.  Everyone act surprised at Christmas if you get a Gift of Thyme from us :-D

I took a bit of inventory last night.  We have asian eggplants for the chickens, two kinds of lettuce, two kinds of tomatoes, red beets, sweet Florida onions, two kinds of non-Plant City strawberries (this will make sense to my Florida readers), two kinds of swiss chard, snow peas, a boatload of thyme (yes, even after all that harvesting), and two kinds of basil and mint.  I'm probably forgetting something that I'll remember after I hit PUBLISH.  Isn't that always the way?  I've gotten a chuckle or two watching The Ladies follow Jay into the cage to see if he'll give them some swiss chard, or to eat some beet greens that are hanging over the side within beak-reach.

herb tower

lots of thyme

We still have issues with squash getting powdery mildew.  Squash doesn't do so well in high humidity, I guess.  We have huge plants, huge leaves that bloom but don't flower... and then get mildewy.  But most everything else is doing really well.

first cuke

I'm pleased with the strawberries, despite their slow start, although if they make gorgeous berries with no flavor, like the variety we planted the last two seasons, it will probably be the last time we grow them.

berry and onion tower

When the weather threatened to get close to freezing last night, we (and when I say, "we" in this case, it means the incredibly tall and handsome man I'm married to) reused some old sheets to cover the towers to keep the tomatoes from freezing, after harvesting all of them that had started to get red on them.  One of the best things about growing hydroponically (aside from more yield, squirrels notwithstanding) is that we save water.  Not just when we grow, but even when it gets cold.  Last year the traditional strawberry farmers, for example, pumped so much water out of the aquifer in the Plant City area that it caused massive amounts of sink holes and water shortages all around the area.  Hydroponic growers can do like we did, and just cover the towers, and not need to spray water as a protective coating on the berries to keep them safe.  We also can turn the pumps on and off, since they're on timers, and we can make sure the unit doesn't water on days without sun.  Handy, huh?

tall and handsome Jay

cold harvested 'maters and cuke

There were probably more than a dozen tomatoes in here, and one cuke.

swiss chard harvest

It took two green bags to store all this swiss chard.



















Before we went to bed, we (remember what 'we means'?) put some plant lights out under them whole thing, to keep everybody warm.  Between that and the red heat lamp we have in the henhouse, it looked like we had the biggest french fry lights in the world in our back yard.

good night, Garden!

good night, Chickies!

Yes, we "Can"

Summer Mix

Jay grew up canning veggies.  My family never did that, so I'm just learning how.  Luckily our friend Dwain, and his sister Fonda have been mentoring me, and reintroducing the art to Jay.  We just got back from a canning trip to Western North Carolina at Dwain's mountain house in Clyde.  We originally planned on canning bush beans in June when we were there, but the beans weren't quite ready yet.  We lucked out on this trip, because we were able to find fresh local beans  in addition to the tomatoes, okra, onions and corn that we had planned on canning.  We also canned 5 pounds of boiled peanuts, and were a little disappointed that the peanuts we bought in Georgia came from New Mexico.  So much for local!

Dwain and Jay.  And Beans.

Beans

Beans going in the Canner

We started with 2 bushels of green beans, which yielded 46 quarts canned.  Dwain's house is the perfect setting for this, with balconies overlooking the mountain.  In order to not heat up the house, we used a propane turkey cooker on one of the balconies for the canning, and for our prep area as well.  The weather was perfect - about 80 during the day and high 50s at night. His house is in the very center of this photo.  We took it across the valley last time in June.

Dwain's house from across the valley

Boiled Peanuts = Crack

Next, we made boiled peanuts.  They turned out fantastic. I ate an entire pint of them myself the other night when I was nursing my sprained ankle.  Nothing better for a sprained ankle than a crapload of salty goodness, I always say!

Fonda with her mad tomato skills

Jay prepping Summer Mi

Finally came the tomatoes!  In all, we canned 125 pounds of tomatoes in various forms:  whole, juiced, and in summer mix, which has tomato chunks, sliced okra, vidalia onions and fresh shucked silver queen corn.   We cold-packed the whole tomatoes and the juice, and pressure cooked the summer mix.  Having many hands helped made this so much fun.  I love learning from Fonda and Dwain, and spending time with Jay preparing good food for us to share. When all was said and done, we had 140 quarts of food to bring back home.  We had brought up several dozen boxes of jars, and ended up having to buy more from Tractor Supply (we bought them out of wide mouths) and Ingles (a local grocery store).   I also picked up two canning cookbooks, Put 'Em Up by Sherri Books Vinton, and The Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving so I can start dreaming about what we'll try next.  Fonda always brings fantastic food she grows in Illinois. She made some out-of-this-world creamed corn that I'd love to try my hand at if I can make it with non-cow dairy products.  I'm really grateful to Fonda and Dwain for sharing their 'tribal knowledge' and helping us nourish our bodies and our lives with yummy food goodness!  I'm also grateful that my sweet husband and I have so many shared interests.  It would be hard to do this without his help and ability to pick up extremely heavy canners full of mason jars and boxes full of canned produce. 

Eating Local, Even When You're Not

Local, that is.  Preserving and canning some of our local produce, as well as supporting a CSA and growing our own food also contribute to our goal to eat this way.  Even the cats get to take advantage of the catnip we produce in our own back yard.  Recently we canned 4 bushels of field peas, varieties like Black Eyed, Conch, Zipper Cream and Purple Hulled Crowders.  We got these peas about an hour after they were harvested, and had them all canned by the end of the day.  It's hard work, made much easier by using our friend's commercial pea sheller. 

In the last few weeks we also traveled to Arizona, North Carolina and Georgia.  We managed to eat locally everywhere we went. Not every meal, but as many as we could, when we could. 





In Arizona, we went to Queen Creek Olive Mill and toured the orchard, garden and olive oil press room.  They grew a lot of veggies and herbs under shade cloth, and featured locally raised produce in their cafe along with the olive oil.  We had some olive oil cupcakes and gelato and brought some of their signature blend and chocolate olive oil back with us.

While in NC, we went berry picking at The Ten Acre Garden.  Actually, Jay, Dwain and Fonda went berry picking. I was sick and took pictures of everyone else picking.  Between us, we picked 4 quarts of raspberries and blackberries.  Jay made a pie with ours, and Fonda and Dwain made freezer jam with theirs.

On this trip, Dwain also brought peaches and tomatoes from his garden in Plant City, and Fonda brought eggs, milk, pork and squash from her farm in Illinois.  With all the canned goods already stored in Dwain's mountain kitchen, we were able to eat 'locally' most of the time we were there.  On Wednesday mornings, there is a small Farmer's Market in Waynesville that we visited.  Unfortunately, we timed it wrong and were not able to get Bush Beans.  We were about a week or two too early for them to be at market.  We did manage to obtain quite a few baked goods that morning. One of the best items was a Squash and Calendula Blossom yeast bread.  It was light and fluffy and just slightly sweet.  We spotted an English Toffee store on our way out of the Farmer's Market, so of course we had to stop there to do a quality control check on the locally-produced candy.  When we got back to Dwain's house, we were able to spread fresh butter that Fonda had just made as well as the fresh jam on that fantastic squash bread.

Our favorite meal on the whole trip was at The Purple Onion in Saluda, NC.  My pilates teacher told me about this little place, so we made a special trip to Saluda to check it out.  I had locally caught mountain trout roasted in corn husks and served with heirloom veggie salsa.  Jay had locally raised organic chicken and roasted heirloom veggies.  We shared a blackberry cobbler that was out of this world.  As a special treat, we also got to listen to 4 locally-grown singer-songwriters that night.

Even on the way home, when we stopped at a roadside stand for peaches, corn, tomatoes and of course, hot boiled peanuts, we partook of what the local farmers had to offer. Spending time in a place like Western NC, where the vibe is definitely more rural and committed to agriculture inspires me to continue to support local farmers, and fuels my desire to move up there and be a part of that life. I think it inspires Jay, too.  He was quite taken with the tractors at the Farm Supply Store....