Could Gardening Become a Felony?

This could be one of the most important informational blogs I ever write.  A friend of mine emailed me a link to this article.  Its difficult to even believe this could be possible.  I'm going to just post the article link and have you all read it.  There are petitions to sign, emails to send.....and people to contact.  Please read this and pass it along to everyone you know!  CLICK HERE.

Freezing Vegetables

Someone initially suggested I write a blog on storing your harvested vegetables.  I decided to write one on freezing instead.  Here's why.  A lot of raw storage methods require a cellar.  Most of the people I know in the California area either have no cellar due to living in an apartment or they don't have an extra room that the temperature can be below 40 degrees to store them in!  Raw storage can be a bit complicated, as temperatures and relative humidity need to be controlled.  So I'm going to suggest freezing your vegetables.  I will cover both water bath canning and pressure canning at a later date.  Here's a list of vegetables and the process of freezing them!

Water and Steam Blanching means : scalding vegetables in boiling water or steam for a short time and placing them into an ice water bath to stop the cooking process.

Asparagus

Wash, sort by size. Snap off tough ends. Cut stalks in 2-inch lengths or leave in spears.

Water blanch: Small stalks: 1-1/2 min. Medium: 2 min Large: 3 min.

Steam blanch: Small: 2-1/2 min. Medium: 3 min. Large: 4 min.

Beans

Wash. Trim ends. Cut if desired.

Water blanch: Whole: 3 min. Cut: 2 min.

Steam blanch: Whole: 4 min. Cut: 3 min.

Beets

Wash. Remove tops leaving 1 inch of stem and root

Cook until tender: for small beets, 25–30 minutes; for medium beets, 45–50 minutes. Cool promptly, peel, trim tap root and stem. Cut into slices or cubes. Pack into freezer containers.

Broccoli

Wash. Trim leaves. Cut into pieces.

Water blanch 3 min. Steam blanch 3 min.

Brussels sprouts

Wash. Remove outer leaves.

Water blanch 4 min. Steam blanch 5 min. (medium-sized)

Cabbage

Wash. Discard course outer leaves. Cut into wedges or shred coarsely.

Water blanch: Wedges: 3 min. Shredded: 1-1/2 min.

Steam blanch: Wedges: 4 min. Shredded: 2 min.

Carrots

Wash, peel and trim. Cut if desired; leave small carrots whole.

Water blanch: Whole: 5 min. Sliced : 2 min.

Cauliflower

Discard leaves and stem, wash. Break into pieces or leave small heads whole (no more than 4-inch diameter).

Add 1 Tbsp. vinegar to water. Water blanch: Whole: 6 min. Cut: 3 min.

Add 1 Tbsp. vinegar to water. Steam blanch: Whole: 7 min. Cut: 4 min.

Corn

Remove husks and silks and trim ends. W ash.

Water blanch medium-sized ears, 3-4 ears at a time, 5 min. After blanching, cut kernels (about 2/3 depth) from cob, bag kernels, freeze.

Corn on the cob

Remove husks and silks and trim ends. Wash.

Water blanch medium-sized ears, 8 min. Cool. Drain. Wrap ears individually in plastic wrap. Pack wrapped ears in plastic freezer bags.

Eggplant

Wash, peel, slice 1/3 inch thick.

Water blanch 4 min. in 1 gallon of boiling water containing 1-1/2 Tbsp. citric acid or 1/2 c. lemon juice. Or, saute in oil and pack.

Greens

Select young, tender greens. Wash. Trim leaves.

Water blanch 2 min., or steam blanch 3 min. Avoid matting woody stems.

Herbs

Wash. Snip or leave on stalks.

For basil only, water or steam blanch 1 min. For other herbs, blanching is not necessary. Freeze in a single layer on cookie sheet.

Peas Garden/ Snow/Sugar

Shell garden peas. No need to shell snow or sugar peas.

Water blanch 1-1/2 min., or steam blanch 2-1/2 min.

Onions/ Green Onions/ Leeks

-For onions, remove peel and chop. -For green onions, trim and slice or

leave whole. -For leeks, make a cut through leaves

and bulb. Do not cut roots. Wash thoroughly. Trim tops. Leave whole or slice.

May be frozen without blanching. Bag and Freeze. (For best odor protection, wrap onions in plastic film before putting in bags.)

Peppers Green/Red/ Sweet/Hot

Wash, remove stems and seeds.

Freeze whole, or cut as desired. No heat treatment needed. (See Guide E-311, Freezing Green Chile.)

Potatoes

Peel, cut, or grate as desired.

Either cook in water or saute grated potatoes in oil. Grated potatoes for hashbrowns and mashed potatoes freeze well. For new potatoes, blanch whole potatoes 5 min., blanch pieces 2-3 min.

Sweet potatoes

Wash and dry.

Bake just until tender; cool. Peel and cut. Pack in flat layers or roll in lemon juice and brown sugar. Or, puree with orange juice.

Winter squash/ Spaghetti Squash/

Wash and remove seeds

Bake whole or cut in half. Place cut side down on baking sheet Cook until tender. Scrape pulp from rind, or remove rind and cube. Cool Pumpkin and freeze cubes, or mash pulp, cool, and pack.

Zuccini/ Summer squash/

Wash, trim ends. Cut into slices or strips.

Water blanch 3 min. or steam blanch 4 min. and freeze. also be breaded and sauteed in oil. Cool and freeze. For sauteed sqaush, place waxed paper between slices before freezing.

Garden 2010

I know it has been a long while and I would love to welcome you all back!  Many things have happened since I last blogged!  I switched to a new department at work in the early spring, I finished P90X, and spent a lot of time working in a 2,100 square foot garden!  I recently got a new camera so next season I will have many more photos to include.  This season I only got a few with a borrowed camera.  You can see the few I posted by clicking the "GARDEN PHOTOS" link.

This growing season I definitely had some setbacks.  While all of the peppers, tomatoes, green beans, kale, onions and many other things did very well, I had a few things that didn't do well at all.  For instance I planted over 250 pumpkin seeds and had planned to set up a stand to sell them.  This should have yielded around 500 pumpkins.  Due to the excessive heat and lack of rain I had about 4 tiny pumpkins! I was really disappointed.  But sometimes we lose the war against Mother Nature.  Also the corn this year didn't do well for me and although I'm not certain, it was more than likely lack of rain.  Excessive heat that begins early and continues throughout the season can sometimes cause vegetables to ripen very quickly.  This isn't detrimental to most vegetables, you just get to enjoy them earlier. The pumpkins started turning orange really early and were completely ripe by August.  Normally you don't pick pumpkins until the vines die which is usually in September and sometimes October.   So if you had a similar experience do not worry, you're not alone!

Now that last season is over its time to start thinking about next season.  What are you planning to try?  I'm planning to try a couple of vegetables that I've not tried before.  I'll include a complete list of seeds at a later date.  Right now I've only committed to a couple.  Did anyone try gardening this season?  Did you plant vegetables?  Or Flowers?  Let me know what you did and how it all turned out!  I promise not to take so long to blog!  I hope you all keep reading!

Roma Tomato Sprouts!

Hello everyone! March 16th, I planted Roma Tomato seeds as well as Jalapeno and Serrano chile seeds! The tomatoes are sprouting already! This is the fastest they've ever sprouted for me! It took only 5 days! I took a picture on my phone...lets see how it looks on here.

Your Health...

Its no secret to most of you that I've embarked on a fitness journey about a month and a half ago. This started out to solve a variety of health problems that were going on, two of which include having asthma and high blood pressure. I decided to take matters into my own hands and try to lose some weight and commit to a more active lifestyle. So far everything is going well. I started doing P90X (yes the one that's on the infomercial), and have not only reduced my blood pressure significantly but I've also not needed my asthma inhaler at all since starting. In addition to that I've lost over 9.5 inches off my body and greatly increased my energy and endurance. Feel free to click that P90X link above and ask me any questions you'd like to about my progress or the products!

What does any of this have to do with gardening? Quite a bit actually. While doing research on how to get healthy I came across several articles on gardening. It seems that people who tend to a garden have the advantage! Physically gardening can be demanding, depending on the role you take with it. The acts of digging, planting, watering, weeding, and harvesting can be a great workout. Also mentally its been proven that people who work around or interact with plants recover from mental fatigue faster, it also helps relieve stress, depression, lowers blood pressure and can serve much like a "moving meditation". Not to mention everything you are caring for is really healthy, no fat, no sodium, almost no calorie FOOD! You can eat as much of it as you want! Just make sure before you go outside to tackle this workout STRETCH! This is very important..to help prevent soreness and injury. I actually have this book on stretching, its great!

UPDATES: I started seeds indoors March 16th. This is a good time to plant by the moon for my area of the country. I started Roma Tomatoes, Jalapeno Peppers and Serrano Peppers. As soon as I can get my camera working, I'll post some pictures I promise! Also a friend and fellow reader told me about this heirloom seed company. Its called Seed Savers. Thanks for the tip Julie!!

What is Companion Planting?

Companion Planting is an old practice that dates back to the Native Americans. It simply means to plant specific crops together for the benefit of both plants. An example of this is planting pole beans next to corn. Pole beans fix nitrogen for the corn. The corn provides a "living trellis" for the beans to climb. Both crops benefit! Some crops provide protection from pests. If you plant squash in with the corn its leaves and vines provide shade around the bottom of the corn and help to preserve soil moisture. Also the squash vines help to deter raccoons who will eat the corn. They don't like trudging through the prickly vines to get to the corn. So how do you know what to plant where?? Here is one good list I found. There really are entire books written about this topic but a good list will get you started.

Companion planting can also be practiced in containers too! You may have to get a larger container based on what you will be planting but many of the vegetables "companion" plants are herbs which don't take up a lot of space. Here is a website dedicated to seeds specifically for containers. Check it out!

Spring is not far off! Get your seeds now! I have heard from more than one source that the prices on produce in the grocery stores will be significantly higher. So get yourself ready....so all of your produce will be virtually free!

A Couple of Facts About Organics

I heard a couple of interesting facts today about eating organic. I generally don't use pesticides on anything I grow. But you should be aware that just because something is organic doesn't mean it's pesticide free. There are in fact still about 100 pesticides that CAN be used on organic vegetables and fruits. Someone asked this question "In times like these when people can't afford to buy organic vegetables and fruits, is there a healthy alternative that costs less?" The Dr. on whatever radio program I was listening to replied "The government has thrown the word organic around so much that now people are confused. Organic vegetables and fruits contain identical nutrition as regularly grown vegetables and fruits.

The key is to buy LOCAL. Locally grown produce will taste better than produce from the grocery store." Its true, if you eat things from the grocery store and they're out of season for your area they are shipped in from thousands of miles away. Which in turn means, they're picked before they're ripe and forced to ripen on the way to whatever store they're going to. Tomatoes and a variety of other vegetables are forced to ripen using an ethylene gas chamber. Ethylene gas is a natural occurring gas in nature. Its produced by some plants and also by humans through combustion. In the presence of a closed room filled with this gas, certain vegetables and fruits are forced to ripen. This is why when you buy a tomato in January it has no taste, because it was picked green and forced to ripen. Keep in mind that while this is a naturally occurring gas, it was also used in high concentrated forms as an anesthetic. I don't want to eat that....do you? All the more reason to just grow it yourself if you have any space at all!!

OH and a couple of you asked me about heirloom seeds. I actually JUST received a catalog in the mail from Baker Creek Seeds. This whole catalog is NOTHING but heirlooms! The prices are very reasonable. They have everything from peppers, tomatoes, pumpkins, melons....greens...corn you name it! Definitely check them out! Until next time....where I'll probably tackle some "companion planting" ideas! Keep reading....the snow is almost over...I hope!!