I have a beaver!

And man, has he been busy.  Just two pictures I took of what he's working on, before my camera died.  I'll get more posted soon.  No sign of a dam, dammit.  I was hoping for one.


Biggish mullberry he's taken a bite out of:

The bite:

A water willow he's taken down already.  The ends look like you put them in a pencil sharpener.  Amazing!

Closeup of the branches on the lower left, where he's taken the smallish limbs to make his dam:

Knitting and Spinning

I just realized that, despite blogging off and on for a couple years now, I don't have any posts about knitting or spinning.  It's probably because I haven't really been doing a lot of either.  I tend to do these things in cycles.

I have many crafty interests.  Besides gardening and fiber arts (the knitting and spinning), I do beadwork, leatherwork, sewing, crochet (which is another kind of fiber art, but not one I enjoy as much as the knitting and spinning) and others I'm probably not thinking of at the moment.


I don't do any of them with any regularity except gardening, though knitting and spinning do get paid more attention than the others.

With all the websites getting hacked recently, I decided it prudent to close those website accounts I don't really use much.  This included my Flikr account (I much prefer Picasa now).  There were a lot of pretty pictures there of my spinning and knitting that I hadn't seen in a while.  I'm rather proud of them, so I thought I'd share some here.


Rather than making one massive post, I think I'll break it up into a few.  This one is about KoolAid dyeing.

Yes, you really can dye things with KoolAid.  You just boil the water, turn off the heat, mix in the KoolAid, then add whatever it is you want to dye and wait for the water to turn clear signaling that all the dye has been taken up.  Be sure to soak the item well in water beforehand, and stir it around to ensure even absorption of the color.  If you don't, you'll get a marbled effect, but that really can be quite nice in itself.  So if you want that, just put the item in the water gently when it's dry and don't stir. 


The pictures here are all of yarn and things dyed with KoolAid.  I wish I would have made better notes on which kind I used.  Best I remember, I used Tropical Punch, Black Cherry and Blue Raspberry for these items.

I think the Tropical Punch is what I used on the first two pictures (same yarn in both), Blue Raspberry on the second set (again, same yarn in both) and Black Cherry on the last three (yep, same yarn in those two, too).  I know I used Watermelon as well and a couple others ~ Lemonade I think.  But these are my favorites.

 I dyed the fiber before spinning.  That's where the old saying "dyed in the wool" came from, meaning from the beginning, before the beginning actually, an intrinsic part of the thing. 

I remember having fun watching the color of the fiber change as it ran through my hands, getting a bit lighter as small amounts of the fiber was pulled off the main hunk and twisted.  I also remember the pleasant smell coming off it as I worked.


We didn't really get much KoolAid when I was a kid, instead drinking water, milk or juice made from fruit we grew or wild-harvested.  So no childhood reminiscences here.  But it was still nice.

I noticed that the colors went so well with the natural color of the wool I was using, so I decided to ply them with a strand of white.  This had a nice side effect of stretching the dyed wool so I was able to make much more of it yardage-wise. 

I've also dyed already-knitted things with KoolAid.  The last three pictures are of some socks I knitted, then dyed.  I don't remember which color this was ~ maybe Tropical Punch again?    
They turned out really well.  Bright red, and how!

Maybe now you want to try your hand at KoolAid dyeing.  Go ahead.  You know you want to...

Blue potatoes!!

We dug the potatoes last night.  It was fun.  I'd thought we would have to literally dig them, but the All Blues apparently don't produce very deeply.  George was able to get the vast majority of them out just using his hands, digging around the base of each plant.

I went ahead with the shovel and found a few he missed, though not many at all.  I almost quit, but the soil was turning over so nicely that I kept going more to get the bed ready for replanting than anything else.

I planted four pounds and it looks like four times as many, but weighing them on the floor scales says we only got ten pounds total.  I've long thought those scales lie.

Tomato Taste-Off, Part One

Picked an entire basketful of tomatoes today.  It was glorious!  Something's eating into quite a few of them (20 or so so far, guesstimate), so I need to figure out what that is and hopefully I can stop it.  In the meantime, I'll be picking a few when they are about half ripe and let them ripen on the counter.  German Johnson and Red Brandywine are two I picked early, but they're not ripe enough to eat yet. 

I picked out the ones that weren't ripe yet and set them on the counter.  Next, I picked out some of the prettiest ones and set them aside for eating fresh.  Last were the ones to go in the freezer.  I got two big gallon ziplocs out of the first round and half a ziploc of Romas later. 

The freezer will be full soon at this rate.  They should have company soon ~ two calves we're going to have butchered.  A story for another post...


When George gets time, he'll cook them down for pasta sauce.  It's going to be heavenly!  Tomatoes, onions, peppers, parsley, oregano, marjoram and thyme, all from the garden.  I can't wait to eat some.  It's so satisfying to sit down to a meal that the majority of was raised by me.

As I was sorting the tomatoes, I was also saving seeds.  You may have noticed some black writing on some of the tomatoes in the picture above.  I take a sharpie out to the garden with me and write the name of the tomato right on it to make sure I don't get them mixed up. 

Once inside, I simply cut the tomato horizontally, squeeze the seeds into a labeled cup, fill with water and set off to the side to ferment.  I've got them sitting on a table in the corner of the dining room and they're already drawing fruit flies.  Nine varieties so far (two cups are Cherokee Purple).

Along the way of all this freezing and seed saving I did some tasting.  Here's how the contestants are faring so far.

Black Giant (in photo at right) ~ Flavor: wonderfully acidic and rich, all around really good. Huge slicing size.  Skins very tender. Heavy producer, possibly because it was planted early, in the second wave of planting.

Cherokee Purple ~ Flavor: strong, bold and rich.  One of my favorite tomatoes.  My two plants have produced like crazy, probably because I got them in so early, though I had heard CP produces well in the heat.

Oxheart ~ Flavor: Usual tomato taste, acidic, pretty darn good.  MASSIVE tomatoes at first.  Produces quite a bit, probably because I got them in early (second wave of planting). 

Riesentraube ~ Flavor: full bodied, sweet but acidity shines through just enough.  Large cherry size.  Produces in a large bunch with a dozen or more on each truss.  Has set two trusses so far.

Silvery Fir Tree ~ Flavor: Strong and acidic, VERY good.  Small slicing size.  Average amount of seeds, average to low amount of meat, and tough skins.  Pretty inside regardless.  Weak plant, not drought tolerant at all ~ never got very big (1/6 the size of others planted at same time) and died after a few days without water when others next to it just wilted (might do better in a cooler climate or some other year than this record-breaking HOT drought). 




Juliet ~ Flavor: nothing special, but pretty good when you haven't had home grown tomatoes for a year.  Tough skin.  HEAVY producer, early, too.

Matt's Wild Cherry ~ Flavor: tart and acidic.  Lots of flavor for such a tiny little thing.  Tough skins.  Produces absolutely like MAD.  

Sungold ~ Flavor: nothing special again.  HEAVY and early producer.




Roma ~ Flavor: rich and yummy as ever.  Meaty with few seeds.  Heavy producer at first since it's a determinate.  Will cut it back and fertilize heavily after this flush to see if I can get another.

Principe Borghese ~ Flavor: nothing special and kind of bland.  Supposed to be delicious when dried, so I'll try that with the next few.  Didn't produce too many, but this plant was one of the last I put in.

A NOID

 A customer came in to the nursery the other day with a bagful of plants to ID.  I really enjoy doing that, especially when there are some that take me a while to figure out.  And REALLY especially when one stumps me and everyone else at the store. 

Here's one of those.  Anyone have any idea what it is?  The customers said it had purple blooms that looked kind of like tiny orchid blooms.  That made me think some kind of long-leaved cenizo (Leucophylluim species), so I looked it up.  They said the blooms looked a lot like those, but I couldn't find a long-leaved cenizo that matched it.

It smells heavenly ~ just like a curry plant.  The leaves are quite hairy with soft, white "fur" on them.  Reminds me of a wooly stemodia, only this "wool" is a lot softer and prettier.  Many of us thought white sage or sage brush, but the stems are in no way square.  I also thought some sort of artemesia, but I couldn't find any sort that wasn't yellow-flowered.

They said it gets about a foot and a half tall and comes up all over their plot of land, growing like a weed even with absolutely no care from them. 

Someone at the nursery did say they've seen it before somewhere else, best they could remember it was growing in a weedy-native-plant type setting.  I checked out the Wildflower Center's website, but no dice. 

Anyone?

Colorful harvest, aka a rainbow in my basket

 I had such a nice time in the garden yesterday.  I set out to plant just a few things and you know how it is ... you end up pulling a couple weeds, watering a few things, tightening a few strings on the tomatoes...  Before you know it, you've been outside for a few hours. 

It was getting hot, so I just grabbed the tomatoes I'd had my eye on ~ two more Oxhearts and a Mortgage Lifter that had blushed pink the other day.  Sure enough they were gorgeous and ripe.

Later in the day I went back out to move the sprinkler and noticed a little yellow patty pan squash.  Then I looked over at the peppers and noticed the Chocolate Beauty I'd been watching was ripe.  Then I noticed the Anaheims next to it...

Before I noticed it, I'd grabbed my basket and filled it with all sorts of things.  I hadn't realized that there was that much out there!  And the colors!  Just look at the colors!  Purple, chocolate, yellow, red, organge, two kinds of green and more kinds of red.  A rainbow in the basket! 

In case you were wondering what they all are, clockwise from the yellow patty pan squash are a pile of cherry tomatoes (orange are Sungolds, oblong red are Juliets, and tiny reds are Matt's Wild Cherrys), then Royal Burgundy bush beans, then Cherokee Purple tomatoes, the red tomatoes are Solar Fires, then another Cherokee Purple, a Chocolate Beauty bell pepper and some Anaheim peppers.  The green beans are more Black Valentines, which so far are winning the Year of the Bean race.  They're YUM-MEE!

That's one big-assed tomato!

This morning, as I was setting the water on the new seeds before I went to work, I noticed some red in the Sea of Green that is the first tomato row.  Oxhearts!  That big-assed green one I've been watching was RED!  And so was it's buddy, hanging right there next to it.

*insert golden sparkles and heavenly music here*

They didn't quite look completely red.  They still had a bit of yellow shoulders and could have spent another day or two on the vine.  But I thought of Nancy, the friend and coworker who gave me the plant along with a couple others. "It's Friday," I thought. "Nancy works today, but won't be at work again until Monday.  But we're off Monday.  They'll be waaaay too ripe by Tuesday.  And I really want to share this with her."

About this time Kelly pulled up, so I had to make a decision.  What the hell.  I picked them both quick and hurried out of the garden.  I met George coming off the front of the porch, held them up and grinned the biggest grin I've had all month.  I was still so excited I don't even remember what he said, but he was amazed and agog, big smile across his face.

I got in the car and said, "Lookie what I have, Kelly!  Oxheart tomatoes.  Want one for lunch?"

First thing I did when we got to work was head straight for the weight scales.  I hollered at Nancy to come see what I had.  She got there about the time I found out it was ...

One and a quarter pounds.  Let me say that again ~ ONE AND A QUARTER POUNDS!  This thing was HUGE!

I told Nancy it was an Oxheart from the plant she gave me and that I was sharing it with her for lunch, but first I was going to carry it around the store all morning.

Lunchtime rolled around and I cut into it (had to do it quick before I thought about it, like pulling those damn wax strips off your legs ~ it's worse if you cringe and brace for it).  It was beautiful inside!  All meaty and juicy and RED.

Nancy took lunch before me and gave me a review: tasty, acidic, juicy and meaty.  Overall, delicious.  When my lunchtime rolled around, I found out how right she was.  Man, it was good!  I think it was still warm from the sun, too. 

 And in other news, I have a new calf!!  Born last Saturday night.

Ain't she ca-yewt?!  Sorry about the far-off, fuzzy picture, but see that red cow off in the distance?  That's her big sister.  Mama's bigger.  MUCH bigger.  With even bigger horns.  And just off the frame to the left.  Across the fence that's directly in front of me. 

Mama didn't raise no fool.

For Stefanie

Riesentraube

 Stefanie, the Assistant Head Groundskeeper at work, was kind enough to share some of the seedlings she started this year, so this update is for her. 

The Riesentraube she shared with me is producing like crazy already.  The name translates to "giant bunches of grapes".  I guess so!  There's another bunch of them starting to set as well.  And the plant isn't even two feet tall.  Amazing.

Then there's the Silvery Fir Tree plant.  It's collapsing under the weight of the fruit. 

The Green Zebra's holding up well.  Three tomatoes, but the plant waited 'til it was big to put them on. 

Riesentraube again

Green Zebra

Silvery Fir Tree

Silvery Fir Tree on left, Green Zebra on right.

The Garden Addition

We got the garden addition shoveled up today.  George did the majority of the earth moving.  I did help, but mostly mulched the paths with pine straw and jumped up and down with excitement.

Corn!  I can grow corn now!  And sweet potatoes!  And okra!  And cotton!  And more beans!!  And maybe even some luffas!

 

Aaaaannnd done!  Eight new 3'x10' (or so) beds, a big corn bed (I'm standing in it to take the above pic) and 70' of 1' row along the fences.  *Happy veggie dance!!*

 

We also got some tomato supports up.  I really need to just make new tomato cages, taller ones, about 7 or 8 feet tall, and quit dicking around with these pepper cages.  Every year I think I can stack two of them to make a tall enough tomato cage, and every year they grow faster than I can stack.  Oh, well ~ tall t-posts and wire make a good enough support to tie the plants to.  It only has to last another couple months anyway.  Then I'll chop them down to a foot or two tall and let them regrow for fall.

  And the obligatory tomato shots.  This Roma plant has at least 40 tomatoes on it! 

And got the first Juliets today, too.  Here are Sungolds, the orange ones; Juliets, the oblong red ones; and Matt's Wild Cherrys, the teeny little red ones (you can only really see one at the top, but there were a few in there).

Earl's Beans

I have a treasure.

A true Central Texas heirloom

George and I carpool to work most days, but on Sundays we drive in and park near the veggie garden gate.  Since he has to be there a bit before I do, this gives me the chance to linger on my way in.  I noticed the other day that the grounds crew are growing "Earl Hall's 30-Year Beans" in a plot by themselves, marked with a sign giving the story.  An heirloom I've never heard of!  One from this area!  Excitement.

Next time I saw Roger, I asked about them.  He said he had some seed out in the truck and would be glad to give me some, coming back in a little later with an envelope for me.  Serendipity struck ~ Mr. Hall himself came in to the nursery that day and I got to talk to him.  Mr. Hall was only too happy to talk about his beans, so I got the full story.  I strongly feel that an heirloom's history must be preserved as well as possible, so that's what this post is ~ the story of Mr. Hall's beans, Hall's Improved as he calls them. 

Notes I took while talking to Mr. Hall.

Mr. Hall is from North Carlina and has a wife who's not fond of beans.  No matter what kind he tried, she didn't care for them.  Blue Lake.  Kentucky Wonder.  Nope.  And nope.

So his sister sent him some seeds from back home.  He doesn't remember what kind she said they were, if she said, but he grew them anyway.  He noticed that they appeared to be a mish-mash, crossed seed perhaps.  He said some pods were four inches long and flat, some six inches long and round, and some more six inches long and blocky.  But all were half-runners, good for string beans.  And his wife liked them!

So every year since Mr. Hall has grown these beans in his Oak Hill garden, out near Appaloosa run he said, by the Salt Lick.  And he described to me in great detail exactly how he saves seed from them.

First, he grows a separate row for seed saving only.  See, he knows that if you grow beans, pick what you want, then let them go to seed for saving, you're unwittingly culling for late beans and will eventually put yourself out of the bean business.  Smart man, that Mr. Hall.

Then, he culls out small vines and beans.  Once mature, he pulls up the bushes/vines and hangs them in the garage.  He said he does this right before a rain is expected.  He didn't say why, but maybe it's because the humidity in the air helps the vines and beans dry slower so more of the goodness of the vines and pods is absorbed into the beans?  Maybe it's like transplanting on a cloudy day being better for the plants ~ makes it so it's not such a shock to the seeds?  Dunno.  But that's how I'm going to do it, too.

Next, he said he waits for a cold, dry day in winter, takes those dried vines down and shells the seeds.  This makes sense, since it would help ensure the seeds are dry enough for storage.  You're supposed to dry beans 'til they shatter when hit with a hammer, which means the moisture content is low enough so they don't rot in storage.  Bet a couple months in the garage, then shelling on a cold, dry day would do just that.

Lastly, he said he puts them in a jar and in the freezer.  He's careful to label them with the date so he can rotate through them, ensuring he has fresh seed stored so not to lose them.  Another mark of his smartness.

I can't wait to grow these.  I plan to sow a few in the garden addition (if we ever get the paths shoveled out ~ didn't get to Thursday because of the rain, but I'm not complaining!).  I don't care if it seems late.  I'll just plant them in an area that gets evening shade.  Might help them produce even once it gets hot.


And, Mr. Hall, I promise to save them just like you have, and to be generous with giving the seeds to others who want to grow them, along with the full story.  Best way to preserve treasures like this.