Onions and Garlic!

This week I dug up and cured my onions and garlic. We’ve tried onions for the last three or four years here, from both starts and sets. Never have they ended up growing very well—usually ending the season just about as large as they started it.

This year I could tell the plants were growing much better, and was excited to see the large onions and heads of garlic being sold at the farmers’ market.

It was hard not to be a little disappointed when we started digging ours out–not quite the size I would have liked.

But then I re-framed my perspective and mused contentedly to Jeremy, ” Our biggest onions yet!”

These onions will actually be able to hold their own in a recipe even–with a partner of course.

This was my first year growing garlic, and though I worried I might have waited too long to put them in last fall it was exciting to watch them break ground this spring, right on time.

Though the little heads are barely the size of two cloves of commercial garlic, I am satisfied with knowing that mine were grown without chemicals or artificial fertilizers, not to mention in my own backyard!

After letting the lot cure in the sun a few days I consulted this tutorial for braiding onions and garlic to string them all up (which was another idealized gardening dream fulfilled–to have braids of my own onions and garlic hanging in my pantry).

I live for these concrete visual reminders of the efforts I have put into helping my family grow and thrive.

Transplanting Seedlings

Some of the seeds we started under the grow lights sprouted their second set of real leaves, so it was time to transplant them out of their itty-bitty starting pods into something bigger.

I had a “helper”.

It was all tomatoes to transplant thus far–they are doing great and it’s nice to know that our grow lights are working out.  We’re growing yellow pear tomatoes which the boys love to snack on.  We’re also growing Roma tomatoes.  I’ve had a lot of success with growing Romas in the past and they are an excellent paste tomato for making sauces and sun-drying.  The third variety we planted is Brandywine.

We had one Brandywine plant last year and we got one most delicious tomato off it before the hornworms came.  It took a while for the plant to bounce back and we only got one more tomato off it later in the summer which wasn’t as good as the first one.  This year we will have lots of Brandywine tomatoes!

All these containers I transplanted into were ones I saved in the shed from the starts we bought last year–nice to avoid waste  and have the perfect containers I need for the job this year.

Starting our Seeds

It’s interesting being involved in virtual circles (aka: read a lot of blogs) to watch everyone begin their gardening, beekeeping and other outdoor activities at different times since we live all over (some even in different hemispheres).

Lately everyone’s been starting seeds. So though we aren’t the earliest, now’s about the right time for our region.

We filled our trays with some Kansas potting soil.  Which led to the discussion of “Of course” we should be producing potting soil locally–because how much sense does it make to truck dirt around the country?

We looked through our seed packets to decide what to plant.  We’ve got all kinds.  Local Kansas seeds.  Big national brand seeds.  Organic seeds, not organic seeds.  Determinate seeds, in determinant seeds.  Open pollination, closed pollination seeds.   Heirlooms and hybrids.  Even saved seeds.

This topic of seeds is definitely an area where I lack knowledge.  I know I should know the difference between all those terms and have an opinion on which ones are best.  I’m just not quite there yet.  I’m aware of all the terms but have trouble remembering which is which and particularly remembering when I’m out seed shopping!

We got started planting some tomato and mixed sweet pepper seeds.  The boys love yelow pear tomatoes.  Also we’ve had good success with growing Roma tomatoes in our yard, so we started some of those as well.  Lat year I bought a Brandywine tomato start.  We got the most delicious Brandywine tomato from that plant.  Then the horn worms came and we never got anything else.  Major disappointment.  So we planted a number of Brandywine seeds.

It’s still on the early side to be starting these for us.  But we do have the hoop house to transplant them to, which means we can move them out earlier than normally would be the case.

Given our dismal non-existent success in the past with starting seeds in doors, I decided a sunny window wasn’t cutting it, so we should try florescent lights this year.  I was never sure about the cost and weather it would be worth it.  I was surprised at how inexpensive getting the setup actually was.

We bought a 48 inch plug-in shoplight, it was $9.  Then we bought a soft (or warm) white light tube for one side and a cool white tube for the other side because the florescent strip holds two tubes.  The two different bulbs will give the seeds the full spectrum of light they need to grow successfully in doors.  These lights were $6 each, but they were sold in sets of two.  So while to have one 48 inch  grow light setup cost me $21.  I could have bought another shoplight strip and it would have come out to just $15 each.   Considering they sell counter top grow lights for up to $300 I’d say this is pretty cheap.

We might buy a longer chain to lower the lights, or we may just tie some string on it instead.  Our assortment of products from many years of failure at seed starting cracks me up.  That biggest one is new this year because with our new grow lights we are feeling ambitious this year!

January Backyard Harvest

It’s amazingly satisfying to cook with my own produce and the other fruits of my  labors.

I made a favorite recipe of ours recently:   Butternut Apple Soup. I was excited to see so much of my own efforts go into the soup. Two decent-sized butternut squash. (We let them sit on the shelf for a while to fully ripen since their vines died before they were ripe.) Frozen applesauce I made this summer from my freezer. Honey from our backyard beehive harvest . I’d love to can my own chicken broth but haven’t done that yet.

We pulled some chard from the hoop house and chopped it up in some scrambled eggs, and added it with crumbled sausage to a tortilla for breakfast burritos.

But the best surprise of the week was that the bantam hens (or at least one) started laying again. The three mini eggs in front came from our 10 month old bantams. I’m really excited for the egg production to pick up again, because who likes having to go to the the store to buy eggs?

I’ve been daydreaming about gardening and beekeeping all week. I guess that’s just what you do when you are cooped in in the middle of the winter. But meanwhile, at least we can enjoy a little bit of goodness from our winter backyard harvest.

Butternut Apple Soup Recipe

3 cups chicken broth
1 medium butternut squash peeled, seeded, and cubed to 1 inch pieces
1 Lg apple peeled and cubed
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 1/2 T honey
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup cream

In a large pot bring the broth and squash to a simmer. Add the apples, applesauce, honey, ginger, and salt. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to med-low, simmer for 15 minutes. At this point you can begin to mash the squash against the side of the pot with a spoon. Add cream, cook for another 10-15 stirring/mashing occasionally until you reach your desired consistency. You can just puree it with a stick blender too. Salt to you own taste.

This Year

This year I will grow chamomile in my garden to dry for tea.

 

I will grow pole beans into a teepee for my boys.

 

And I will grow luffa for making homemade sponges.

 

With all the talk of resolutions, I decided to make some for my garden.  These three goals are things I’ve wanted to do in years past but haven’t yet.  It has come down to not being ready or having the right seeds because I can’t find them here in town.  So this year I am going to make it happen.  I’ll need to order the seeds from a catalog and prepare dedicated plots for each of these things.    It will be a little more effort than my normal mode of operation, but I’m excited to reap the benefits of a little more forethought.