It’s time to start more seeds. Onions are going, time to add brassicas to the mix.
Another round of sausage making
Yesterday I made another round of breakfast sausages. I’ve been wanting to try a couple of different recipes and I had a pork shoulder in the freezer that needed to be used.
I did two variations on breakfast sausage. The first is the basic breakfast sausage recipe from Home Production of Quality Meats and Sausages. This book is awesome for technical information, including lots of sanitation regulation and helpful tips on food safety. I’m not sure all the recipes are the best though. For instance, this one had you grind the meat and then add the seasonings before the primary bind. Seems wrong to me. I always figure that meat benefits from extra time in contact with seasoning, particularly salt. So I mixed everything and let it sit for a bit in the fridge and freezer before grinding. Added a bit of extra pepper too, since I like a fairly peppery sausage. I think this one turned out pretty well.
The second was a maple breakfast sausage recipe from Home Sausage Making. This one had some onion and so I thought adding garlic might work too, but with the maple syrup I think it is supposed to be a sweeter flavor profile. Still good, but I’ll leave the garlic out next time. That’s the fun of experimenting.
Here are a few photos. The meat was really beautiful, Kristin thought it was a shame to “waste” it on sausage. I stuffed quite a bit of this into small links, but neglected to take photos of the finished product.
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starting onions
It’s already that time.
2013 Seed Buying
Yesterday I bought seeds for this year to replenish our stock and thought I’d write down a couple of interesting observations.
Last year we were planning to have a large garden for the first time and we went a little nuts. Bought tons of seeds and I think we ordered from 4 or 5 different companies. I think for the most part we used everything we bought and were pretty happy with most of it.
This year we decided to go a little simpler and decided to buy everything from two companies, High Mowing (a local VT company) and Baker Creek. We had a chance to visit High Mowing last fall for their “Field Days” and we were very impressed with their operation. Besides the plus of being local and thus having a higher possibility of getting seeds well adapted for our area, they are also doing some interesting seed development and hybridization work. As far as Baker Creek, we just love their selection and advocacy for heirloom and open pollinated seeds.
One thing we decided to try for the coming year is to buy a few hybrids. We had a decent amount of trouble with various wilts, rusts and blights last year. We never did get zucchini going, although a lot of that was bug issues. A lot of the tomatoes ended up with various levels of disease, although some of that may be rectified by giving each plant a bit more space and pruning better.
After a lot of experimentation last year, we are probably going to go a bit more basic this year until we have our own property with more room. That means we probably won’t grow cauliflower (takes a lot of room and we didn’t have much luck getting heads to form), popcorn (proved out we can grow it and also takes a lot of room), melons (not enough sun, difficult to get started and once again room) and soybeans (we’ll definitely grow these when we have the space).
Every year we like to try some new things, so here are a few things we are planning to experiment with this coming season:
- some hybrid cucumbers from High Mowing (a pickling and a slicing variety)
- Kaitlen cabbage – a sauerkraut variety
- Tomatoes – Amish Paste, Cherokee Purple, Black Cherry and Berkeley Tie Dye (a funky pink and green variety developed by Bradley Gates of Wild Boar Farms)
- Potatoes – Russet and Russian Banana (fingerling) – had good luck last year with Yukon Gold, La Ratte fingerling and Red Norlands, want to try some other varieties)
- Good Mother – an heirloom dry bean
- Various greens – new salad mixes, a Bibb lettuce, Purple Orach, Purple Mizuna
- Eggplant – Aswad (large dark purple Iranian variety) and Ping Tung (a Thai variety)
Should be another fun year and hopefully we can take what we learned last season and build on that.
Chickens in the snow
The chickens have enjoyed pecking around in an inch or two of snow, but this latest storm seems to have them a bit confused and tentative. No wonder, a couple of feet is a lot more snow. It’s fun to see their different colors contrasted against the snow though.
Dreams for Ezra
Ezra turned one year old on first day of December. I was hoping to get this posted closer to his birthday, but the holidays have a way of getting in the way.
Typically this blog tends toward the practical and matter of fact, but sometimes it’s good to reflect on the why. Although having a family wasn’t necessarily the primary motivator in our decision to move to Vermont and change up our lives, it certainly played a part. While many people raise families in a large urban area like Chicago and I have the upmost respect for those who do, the fact is it can be difficult. It’s pretty expensive to afford housing in the city with plenty of room for kids, although people make it work. Obviously much of the world where extended families live in large huts would consider this a first world “problem”.
So that’s one reason people move to the ‘burbs, but that wasn’t in the cards for us. In particular, many of the things we wanted to do involved needing space, not just for kids, but for canning jars and beer making equipment … animals and gardens … and so on.
Anyway, I’ve already covered a lot of the reasons we moved to Vermont, so I won’t reiterate those. I’m more interested in thinking about what kinds of dreams I have for Ezra and how living in Vermont plays into that. When I was growing up in a very rural area, I reached a point where I couldn’t wait to leave. There were a lot of reasons for that, many having nothing to do with the rural environment.
Anyway I’m hoping we can do some things differently and give Ezra some good reasons to love the lifestyle we’ve chosen. I know he may reach young adulthood and need to set out on his own adventures. He may have to live in his own “Chicago” for awhile to appreciate his young life here. That’s certainly a discussion for another day well down the road.
Here’s what I’m dreaming for him in the meantime though:
- That he’ll learn to appreciate good food and drink and what it really takes to have it. That includes growing his own food, including understanding where meat comes from. Eventually making beer. How to preserve food through canning, root cellars and curing meats. How to cook something yourself and realize it’s better than whatever you ordered that last time at the restaurant.
- That he’ll be able to plant stuff and watch it grow, including stuff that takes awhile to mature like an apple or nut tree.
- That he’ll learn the joys of hospitality, community and good friends. You don’t have to be in the country to learn that, as we found in Chicago and other places we’ve lived. But we certainly hope to continue it here and have already made strides in that direction.
- That he’ll be exposed to other viewpoints and people from all walks of life. This may take some work in Vermont, which isn’t the most ethnically diverse place. That’s one thing we miss about Chicago. On the other hand, we have way more friends of the “experienced” and even “elderly” persuasion here, so I’m hoping he’ll take advantage of their wisdom and knowledge. And we’ve met people who have moved here from all over and/or have traveled extensively.
- That he will develop an interest in creativity and the arts. We are starting to meet a lot of creative people (musicians, artists, writers, potters, fabric artists, etc.), so I’m hoping we can expose him to all of that. Also hoping to spend more time on music myself, so that he’ll not just be around music we play at home, but also seeing music be made at home and by others in the community. I know I can’t force him to play an instrument (or at least force him to enjoy it), but I would love to see him develop an interest in really any musical instrument and/or singing. He seems to be trying to sing already.
- That he’ll learn to enjoy contemplation, silence, nature and just being in the moment. That seems to be getting harder and harder in our fast-paced world, but Vermont has a lot of natural beauty and outdoor space that at least provides a setting for it.
- That he’ll learn to use technology in a balanced way. Despite living in the country, we still have a lot of technology around and that isn’t likely to change anytime soon. I’m still a computer programmer. But I want him to get his hands dirty and do physical things as well. Since moving here, I find that getting out and doing physical work provides a nice break from being on the computer and vice versa.
- That he’ll learn to work hard, but also play hard and relax hard. I got a great work ethic from the way I was brought up, but I also struggle with being a workaholic sometimes and getting too caught up in always doing stuff. When the garden is in full swing I’m out there all the time. That’s good, but sometimes you need to take a break too.
It will certainly be fascinating to see how Ezra develops and experiences his environment. I can’t wait to watch and dream with him.
2012: The Season In Review
So our first gardening season in Vermont is pretty much over, although we still have a number of things under tunnels again. Looks like we may have some cabbage, carrots, beets, chard and a few other things.
Overall, we are pretty happy with how things went, although we still have a lot to learn. But considering I haven’t worked a garden this big since I was a kid, I think we did okay. We mostly kept up with weeds and getting things picked. One thing we didn’t expect to struggle with so much was the insect pressure early in the season. We had certain crops we planted multiple times and still didn’t get anything going. Next year we will probably use more row cover until the plants get established.
The good
- Peas – got a decent little crop early on, both shell peas and snap peas. We only had one row, so not enough to get much. Definitely want a lot more when we have some land. Had better luck with pre-sprouting the peas before planting than seeding directly.
- Carrots – Tried a bunch of different types and got a good yield eventually, but they take awhile to get going.
- Tomatoes – Mostly did pretty well with these, although had some disease issues with certain varieties. Had some volunteer plants from the compost as well, mostly cherry. We were able to dry and slow roast a lot and put them in the freezer.
- Peppers – Once again, some of these took awhile to get started in the New England climate, but once they did we got a fairly prolific yield. Even the habanero we started ended up loaded late in the season, although it would have been nice to have a bit more warm weather for them to finish ripening.
- Tomatillos – We only planted a couple of plants, but they grew over 6 feet tall and got loaded with fruit. Once again a couple more weeks of hot weather would’ve helped, but Kristin was able to make a bunch of salsa verde anyway. The main thing we learned is even though the stems get pretty thick and woody, when the plants started getting loaded they needed extra support, particularly in the wind.
The disappointing
- Cauliflower – We didn’t have great luck with any variety, but the Purple of Sicily from Baker Creek was particularly disappointing. The thing is, it was wonderful in every way except fruiting. It germinated quickly and at a high rate, was very hardy when transplanting, responded well to insect pressure and grew really large. So maybe it was the season or something we did wrong. I’ve heard cauliflower tends to do better in fall plantings since it likes it colder when fruiting, but didn’t get around to starting fall plants early enough.
- Zucchini – Yes, really, even though this is normally one of the easiest plants to grow and you end up with more than you want. We tried planting this multiple times and the bugs kept getting it. We finally go a few plants started in mid-summer, but they never did much.
- Melons – Same thing, too much insect pressure for them to get going and they need a whole season here to do much.
- Tomatoes – like I said above, we did okay for the most part. But the Brandywines succumbed to some sort of rust or blight and we got maybe one or two decent fruit. Plus the slugs would start eating them before they got fully ripe, so was hard to get one that was nicely sun ripened. This seems to be the story with Brandywines, they are notoriously tricky to grow. The Paul Robesons did much better and I like them just as much.
The other plant that seemed to have disease issues was Stupice, although it is very widely grown. In retrospect I don’t think I allowed enough spacing between plants and they probably could’ve have use both more air flow and pruning. Something to remember for next year.
- Brussel Sprouts – similar to the cauliflower, plants looked great and never sprouted. Another one I think I’ll reserve for fall planting next year.
- Cucumbers – we had some issues with cucumbers here that we never had in Chicago. Same variety, but they formed stunted fruit that seemed to be an off shade of green along with some brown. I expect it is some type of mineral deficiency or something, but we never figured it out. We did plant Mexican Sour Gherkins later in the season and they actually did great. But we were hoping for more pickling cucumbers of other varieties.
Well, there is a lot more I could go into, but that’s probably enough. I would like to post a list soon of the various food we were able to put up. We’ve got a pretty nicely stocked basement now and should be able to have some food this winter from our garden. We aren’t close to being most self-sufficient in food yet and we’ll probably need more land for that, but we are another step closer to that goal.
How did your garden do this year?
Not toxic but tasty – Habanero Hot Sauce
I really love to grow peppers. There are hundreds of variations, so there is always another one I want to try. I tried to grow some habaneros in Chicago, but the little plot we had just didn’t get enough sun. We were able to grow some Thai chilis and I actually think they may have grown better in a pot on our deck in Chicago than they did this year in our garden. But that’s partly because I started the seeds myself and without a greenhouse, it’s tricky to get healthy robust plants that produce in Vermont’s short growing season. The ones we did start are looking really great about now: tall, vibrant, healthy and loaded with fruit. But we could get frost any day now.
I was able to get a great Fatali habanero to grow this year and we also bought a nice plant of some other habanero variety from Red Wagon Plants. We also have jalapenos, cayenne, Fish peppers and Hungarian Hot Wax. If you do get a lot of questions, then you have to find stuff to do with them. We’ve pickled some, put them in scrambled eggs and pasta and made salsa. But the habaneros are a bit much for most of those uses. They don’t get as hot here as in warmer climates, but they still pack a punch.
So yesterday we were canning applesauce and I decided to try to make some hot sauce while we still had the canner going. After we were done with the apples obviously. I really like carrot-based habanero hot sauces, but instance I fell in love with Marie Sharp’s “Belizean Heat” when I visited Belize a number of years ago. So I tracked down a couple of recipes that I could can and ended up doing something like this Agent Orange Habanero Sauce, but without the mustard or something like this recipe. In addition to the peppers, the carrots, garlic and most of the onion were all from our garden as well.
So donning some gloves, I set to making the recipe. I used a Cuisinart mini food prep for most of the chopping as I didn’t want to handle the peppers any more than necessary. The air did get pretty pungent and it’s amazing how that stuff gets throughout the house. Fortunately we were going out last night so it had time to dissipate.
Here’s the sauce ready to put into jars. I used an immersion blender to blend everything. The habaneros aren’t cooked, they are put into the mixture fresh after you boil and blend the rest of the ingredients.
I’m actually very pleased with how it turned out. It’s definitely very hot, but not unpleasantly so. I could actually taste a bit on a spoon without setting my mouth on fire for 20 minutes. The carrots add a bit of sweetness and the habaneros have a bright fruity flavor in addition to the heat.
First egg
I was cleaning out the coop yesterday and found our first egg. Unfortunately it wasn’t usable because it had been there a bit and gotten cracked. I was expecting it to be a few more weeks, but our oldest hen Willow was showing signs, such as squatting down when you put your hand near her. So I’m not too surprised.
She laid it in the nest, so that’s good. The bad is the girls also think the nest is their sleeping quarters at night. The “nest” is just a wooden box that sits inside the coop, so we can’t close it up at night or anything. I guess I could try turning it around backwards at night and then right side out in the morning, but that might just confuse them. Probably not going to worry about it unless it starts to become a big issue. Biggest problem is keeping the shavings clean in there, so I’ll probably have to refresh that daily.
But the important thing is we are on our way to getting our own eggs, so that’s pretty cool.
Morning harvest
Quick harvest this morning before work. Various green beans, cherry tomatoes (mostly Sungold), Serrano peppers, Hungarian hot wax peppers, Stupice tomatoes