Getting involved with my local community, and come thoughts on Rancho "Going Green"

The widget you see to the right is for the Meetup group I started specifically to help other local gardeners. My friend Mandi was generous enough to 'sponsor' us by giving me one of her subscription slots, which is why shes listed as the organizer and I'm the assistant. But in reality I rule with an absolute iron will.....HAHA just kidding. I do post alot of info tho, everything I come across on blogs, UC cooperative extension articles, other states extension articles, forums, etc. I know not everyone has as much time ( or passion) to search the world wide web as I do on nights like this when I can't sleep.

Master Gardening classes are going wonderfully. Monday nights are now my "ME" night. Chris gets home early, I have my 20 minute ( not much traffic thank GOD) drive to Loma Linda, then I get to sit in the beautiful Loma Linda East Campus' new tranquility garden and relax and read a bit before class. I love my kids but man I've missed having an activity that doesn't revolve around them. Last week we learned about the basics of soil ( types, composition, water holding capacity) and water ( its structure, how plantsuse it, its relation to soil type, irrigation) and this week we learned all about irrigation. An expert who works for Rainbird ( and also a master gardener) came and spoke to us about different types of irrigation systems, sprinklers, drip systems, timers, controllers, planning an efficient irrigation system, upcoming legislation regarding residential water usage....wow, theres alot more to watering then the ole' thumb over the hose thats for sure. Some of it I knew from designing my garden's drip system, but now I can see where theres tons of room for improvement.

I've also been approached to do a talk on organic gardening a a local library, hooray! I'm in the process of getting those details from the library and checking if I can get community service hours for it ( since I need 50 hours for the Master Gardener certification). Its exciting to think in March I could be speaking to the public about something I love with a name tag saying I'm a trained Master Gardener. It gives me goosebumps.

Being the overacheiver that I am ( or was in my life before kids...) I'm also planning on God willing taking the county's Master Composting seminar later this month to become a Master Composter- and hopefully be able then to give classes in my city about it. Sadly my city is a little slow on that part of green living...but they are building and promoting some huge LEED Platinum building (aka build up to the strictest 'green' building codes) as an office building. Interesting...but eh. In contrast the Sam J. Racadio Highland Library and Environmental Learning Center that just opened up in Highland a few months ago is only a Gold LEED building but is more then just a 'green' library building. It also has a rooftop garden and many programs designed to provide and promote environmental education .

woot, thank you Green Valley Initiative! I think....hopefully its not just another cleverly disguised lobbying group.

At least theres finally some atttention to the issue. San Bernardino county is pushing for all of their cities to become more "green". I am proud that my city is trying to become "green" certified, but theres more to it then putting in fancy buildings with nifty soar panels and recycled materials. We have NO community garden, NO composting program, and NO recycled green waste availible to the public. Tsk Tsk. I think responsible horticulture ( xeriscaping, organic gardening, green waste recycling,sustainable agriculture) are also very important issues community members should be encouraged to learn more about. How can you be "green" without growing PLANTS? hmm?

A Late Summer Update

Hey everyone, sorry for the big hiatus again. One thing I didnt quite realize was just how much time I needed to dedicate to my garden weeding, watering, and of course, harvestng and preserving. Literally figs "not quite ripe" one day will be mushy and too ripe within a few days so I have to be checking every day to catch them when they are perfect. Tomatos are a big more forgiving but a few times I waited too long ( trying to let them develop maximum sun kissed flavor) and they has soft rotten spots on them or bugs found them.

Cantaloupes are the worst with this- you have to pick them at "full slip" when you lift the fruit it readily deattatches from its vine- that means its ripe. Sometimes I don't see them nestled in all the tangle of leaves and vines and by the time I find them little bugs have chewed holes into the soft spot where the melon is resting on he ground and the melon rots to the center before I find it. Its quite frustrating to be searching for melons, finding one thats already off the vine, pick it off and have it dissintegrate into a pile of emptyskin, goo, and seeds in my hand. Sometimes this happens in the house to, I set my picked fruit on the table and forget to put them in the fridge/eat them right away and with how warm its been they rot sitting on the table. Thankfully I've only lost a few melons, I had harvested 12, yes TWELVE of them in one day some weeks ago and had ot usily chop them all and freeze them, no way I could eat all of them and even if they are mushy when thawed should make a decent cereal or fruit salad addition in winter. I'm still finding 1 or 2 ripe melons a week, and the vines are still flowering. They taste INCREDIBLE, I've never ever had such sweet wonderful melons in the stores.

Ironically, these plants were a result of store bought melon I had thrown the seeds in the composter, and they all sprouted. The seedlings I had tried to start in trays died, and the ones planted in ground were eaten by a bug, so I tried planting some of these random seedlings to see how they'd fare in the garden. So I have no idea what the name of the variety is, but they taste amazing.

Of course my Husband wanted pics of my melons. And I wanted to post them on the internet. Original huh? ( Even more ironic that I'm trying to look sexy and not laugh at myself when I look like crap after working outside all morning)

I also finally broke down and bought a pressure canner. I have processed a ton of strawberry jam, raspberry jam, fig jam, tomatos, tomatillos, salsa and dilly beans (picled green beans) but I really wanted to be able to can this bumper crop of butternut squash, and for that I can't use a boiling water canner. I sold my brand new, in the box, singer sewing machine I got 2 years ago and still had never used ( and had no clue how). I needed a pressure canner. So I used the funds from the sewing machine to buy a 23 quart Presto Pressure Canner off Amazon.

Heres a pic of it next to my boiling water canner for comparison. Please excuse the grungy stove, after a long afternoon of canning a stove will not look clean no matter how many spills you try and wipe up LOL.

I have been quite enjoying my expanded canning possibilities. I had 7 quarts of homemade chicken stock frozen in various tupperwards in my chest freezer and needed the space for freezing meat and bread. Plus sometimes its a pain to wait for the 'brick' of stock to melt when making soup. So I asked around on some forums and found out its perfectly safe to thaw, boil, and can previously frozen chicken stock. The boiling water canner minus the canning rack makes an excellent large pot for boiling stock. The pressure canner was very easy to use, I was scared it would blow up but it really was easy once I read the directions and followed them step by step. I even used it as a pressure cooker to make a pork roast. Usually I cook it slowly overnight in the slow cooker, but I was able to cook a very fork tender, flavorful roast in about 2 hours. My local market had a crazy manager special on some organic rainbow carrots, 20 cents per 2 pound bag ( 5 bags for $1). Apparently people we'rent buying them since they weren't all that "traditional" orange, its a mix of heirloom varieties. Their loss was my gain and I happily practiced pressure canning with 10 pounds of carrots. Alton Brown had a show where he made chicken stock in a pressure in hours rather then how I do it simmering slowly for 2 days. I may try it one day for comparison, but I'm cusiour of the pressure cooker extracts as much minerals and collegen from the bones into the stock. But first I needed to can some butternit squash....quite a bit of it.

Canning the squash was an all day project. Apparently you cannot can mashed or pureed winter squash for safty reasons, you can only can them in cubes with a pressure canner. I realized by accident that by canning the butternut squash the same day as I pick them the skin isnt hard and much easier to peel with an ordinary kitchen knife. I didn't even have to soften the squash by baking or steaming it. Thankfully Walthum butternut doesnt have much in the way of seeds, so I didnt waste much squash in peeling and seeding. The result is some very gorgeous looking canned squash. I keep opening the pantry door just to admire my handywork!

Heres my other pantry shelf stuffed with home canned goodness:

Huzzah! I'm happy!

got this in my email today, finally some good news in the midst of real life stress.


Dear University of California Master Gardener Program Applicant:

Congratulations!

You have been accepted into the University of California Cooperative Extension Master Gardener program!Attached please find a letter with complete details. If you are unable to open the attachment, please note that hardcopies of the same information were mailed to you today.Welcome to the world of volunteerism and Master Gardening.
We look forward to meeting you and to your involvement in what we hope will prove a rewarding and fulfilling experience!

Janet Hartin
Jackie Brooks
University of California Cooperative Extension
University of California Cooperative Extension Environmental Horticulturist and MG Program Manager
MG Program Coordinator

Peaches (For SonomaMom)

SonomaGarden got me to thinking about peaches. We picked these back in mid June, they were wonderfully juicy. I wish we had some ripe peaches right now LOL. Hopefully next year all 8 varieties will give and we can enjoy them all summer long.

Oh Snap! (Beans)

Growing up my experience of beans was refried from a can or glued to construction paper for some sort of a craft. I knew green beans existed, they were in cans in my mother's pantry where every once in a while she'd dump the lot into a pot, boil it, and serve. ewwwww. I hated the taste, the texture...just ickick ick. Everytime I saw that french's frid onion commercial of " I brought the green bean caserole!" I shuddered and couldnt imagine how that was a good "Welcome Neighbor" gift. So naive I was...

So this year when I had a 'free' row to try and grow something new I wanted something easy to grow, liked warm weather and gave a good bounty for its space. On the forums I haunt it was suggested I try pole or bush beans. I was very iffy at first, I had this image of a row of beans that when shelled would give about 2 cups worth of beans...until I researched them a bit more and found out you eat the thing pod and all as green beans when young and tender. Something about "young, tender, green, & delicious!" got me hooked. It was a great sales pitch. Since this was my first time growing them I wanted to go with a variety that was full proof and bountiful, so I looked on Burpee and there was rave reviews for their Bush Bean Heavyweight II so I ordered a packet and hoped for the best. So far they have lived up to their 'hype' and given us quite anabundance of pods, I cant get them blanched and frozen fast enough LOL. I still had no idea how to cook the darn things...but I felt happy I had them LOL. Until I found a mouthwatering recipe for green beans from The Pioneer Woman blog...I thought I had died and found heaven in a vegetable....those beans were so damn good I ate them cold the next day like a cold green ean salad....it is that amazingly good (and simple to boot).

Eventually I bought a packet with 3 different colors beans ot fill in betwene where some beans didnt grow, so now I have some purple and yellow beans growing too, very pretty! Sadly when pickled they dont stay purple...and the yellow ones just kinda turn white...

Edible Weeds: lots to love about Purslane

I was poking around on mother earth news and was reading an interesting article on how healthy purslane is and I had to feel a bit guilty- I spent a couple of hours today pulling weeds and purslane is the most common weed I have. I don't aim to keep my garden perfectly weed free but even with landscape fabric, cornmeal, and mulch its a never ending battle against spurge, burmuda grass and purslane for precious water and space. I remember reading about edible weeds in "Stalking the Wild Asparagus" years ago so I reasoned it was safe to add to my compost bin unlike most other weeds. For some reason I havent been able to bring myself to eat 'weeds'- yet.
I guess its because I'm not much of a salad fan so as tasty as dandelions, sheperds purse and purslane may be I have the excuse of not being a salad person to avoid eating them. But in the name of good gardening as well as being more open minded I will probably nibble on some purslane and see how it is. I mean really, if its thriving in your garden,its plentiful, and its FREE and its healthy why not eh? Talk about the ultimate freebie!

If I can be 'brave' enought to forego the traditional lawn and water greedy landscape plants for edibles I may as well try the stuff I didnt plan on planting but showed up anyway. How about you guys?

Do you go as far as to cultivate what others consider weeds ( dandelion, chicweed, dock, purslane, miners lettuce, etc) or just joyfully pick whats edible as you pull other less wanted pests? Just poking on Mother Earth news I found 2 articles of interest, of course theres good ole google if you're looking for more :)

WILD FOODS IN YOUR GARDEN
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/1992-06-01/Wild-Foods-in-Your-Garden.aspx
Power-Packed Purslane
http://www.motherearthnews.com/Organic-Gardening/2005-04-01/Power-packed-Purslane.aspx



I posted this on the Freedom Gardener forums and I wasnt the only one suprised that this 'weed' is so awesome! I also found a few more links via other posters. This site here deals with edible/medicinal wild plants groups by month, heres the link to their July page with many useful facts on purslane, some recipes, and more links to other sites mentioning purslane.
http://www.prodigalgardens.info/july%20weblog.htm#Purslane


Last but not least one of my favorite blogers SonomaMom had this wonderful looking recipe for a Turkish Purslane Stew

So next time I go on a weeding frenzy I'm going to finally put that weed to good use and try eating it.

Freedom Gardeners Unite!

I now have another forum to go hang out on in my free time. :) But don't worry, MCD 'Diggin in the Earth' remains in my daily rounds as well. My username (on both) is Geogal17


from www.freedomgardeners.org


Seeding Change: Website Seeks to Liberate Diets—and Wallets—from Supermarket
Site’s “100-Foot Diet” Brings Local Food Movement Home
PASADENA, CA. - July 7, 2008 - Think of it as Facebook meets the Farmer’s Almanac: A social networking site for backyard pioneers who want to fight soaring food prices and global warming by growing their own food. At FreedomGardens.org, novice and expert growers from all over the world can gather to post success stories, ask questions, and challenge one another to ever-increasing levels of self-sustained living.
The site is backed by the example of its founders, the Dervaes family, the urban-dwelling “eco-pioneers” who have been growing most of their own food since 2001. On their one-fifth acre residential lot in Pasadena, Jules Dervaes and his three adult children, Anais, Justin, and Jordanne, grow over 400 varieties of fresh fruits, vegetables, herbs, and edible flowers-with enough left over to run an award-winning “green” business selling fresh organic produce to local restaurants and caterers.
Few can match that output, but the Dervaeses say that by growing at least a portion of what they eat, “Freedom Gardeners” everywhere can take back control from the corporate food system. In the process, they can improve their health, reduce their ecological footprint, and save money. With food price inflation at the highest levels since 1990, the latter may be the most compelling reason to join what the Dervaeses call their “homegrown revolution(TM).”
To motivate new gardeners and focus their efforts, Freedom Gardens offers challenges like the 100-Foot Diet. With a nod to the 100-Mile Diet and other “eat local” initiatives, the 100-Foot Diet urges people to garden in whatever space they have available, be it a small patio or a spacious backyard, then prepare at least one meal a week using as many homegrown ingredients, and as few store-bought ingredients, as possible.
Mr. Dervaes uses the illustration of a target to explain the 100-Foot Diet in the context of the global food economy and the distance food travels from field to plate. “The outer ring of the target is overseas, while the circle at 1,500 miles represents the average distance produce in a grocery store travels. The 100-mile diet is getting you closer to the center. But, the 100-foot diet is actually bringing you right back to your home, and that is the bull’s-eye,” he says. “We want people to look for food security in their own backyard.”
Freedom Gardens is an offshoot of the family’s first website, PathtoFreedom.com, a seven year-old sustainable living blog that gets 5 million hits per month from 125 different countries. The new, more interactive site uses social networking software to connect visitors with other gardeners in their area. They can share tips about local climate and soil issues, display which challenges they are participating in on their profiles, and find others nearby doing the same challenge.
“We are providing the setting for ‘over-the-fence’ chats,” says Mr. Dervaes. “Neighbors can help each other more than we can from our particular locale. Through the website, we facilitate their getting together.”
Growing your own diet is not easy, but the Dervaeses are living proof that it is not impossible either. In their first year of full-time gardening, the family’s harvest was over 2,300 pounds; by 2003, their yearly take had reached over 6,000 pounds. This year they have challenged themselves to reach a new all-time high: 10,000 pounds from a one-tenth acre urban garden.
The Dervaes family has received several local awards and congressional recognition for their environmental contributions and outreach efforts. They have been the subject of numerous articles in newspapers around the country, including The New York Times and The Los Angeles Times, and were recently featured on ABC’s Nightline and CNN.
About Freedom Gardens
Launched in May 2008, Freedom Gardens is a social networking website for gardeners and homegrown food enthusiasts. The site’s founders, the Dervaes family, draw on years of personal experience on their model urban homestead to help others take back control of their diets and their budgets by growing more of their own food. For more information, please visit www.freedomgardens.org.

The season of Bounty is upon us, woot!

Just taking a break from the sweltering hot kitchen...todays preserved count thus far:

5 quarts of Dilly Beans


8 pints of Fig Jam


2 Trays of fig dehydrating

1 tray of 'fig leather'

1 tray of tomatos drying

3 pounds of banana cut up and frozen

2 gallon bag packed with bell pepper strips frozen


I HAD to use those figs today or lose them, when I picked them yesterday most were almost to the point of overripe, the sudden humidity with the heat made a whole bunch ripen on the tree even faster then I would have anticipated. They were too squishy to can whole. I still have 4 quarts of whole figs in syrup in the pantry ( I gave some away to family), they look cool in the jars. I'm watching the tree more carefully, with the next 'wave' of figs I want to can them whole again.


My face is all greasy feeling, all that steam and boiling water from canning and blanching is like a sauna, opens the pores which is good I guess but man I feel hot and gross. I keep washing my hands and face to cool off and not feel so oily but my face keeps pumping out more LOL. I'm just letting the kids eat something then mybe they will go take a little nap so I can shower.


I need to do another tray of tomatos in the dehydrator and probably chop some to freeze as well. I have the rest of the row of green beans to pick as well, I only got thru about 5 plants worth, they are so packed with beans right now. Need to do something with the eggplant....not sure if I can freeze it. Oh wait, lookkee HERE I can freeze it , nifty! Fresh eggplant to make curry with for the next few weeks.

I also have a bumper cop of basil I need to do something with, its flowering. I'll probably end up freezing it for later. I tried to keep up with snipping it so it wouldnt flower and affect the flavor, but serious, basil WANTS to flower, I swear the more you snip it the faster it tried to flower LOL. Time for frozen pesto.

Preserving the Harvest

Been MIA from blogging since I've been busy, busy, busy blanching, freezing, canning, and yes even dehydrating the fruits/veggies of our little happy garden. I'll try to get some pictures and recipes up later.

June's Garden in Pictures

These photos are about 2 weeks old, I need to take new ones, most of my plants are way bigger then these photos show. Click for captions.