Growing Food: Starting Seeds

My gardening year starts now, when I start seeds for cabbage and kohlrabi seeds indoors. Our last frost date isn't until late May, but our strong sun means that the soil will be warm enough to plant out things in early spring that can handle a light frost. That includes all of the brassicas, so I plant out the cabbages and kohlrabi on March 17.

Yes, I plant my cabbages outside on St. Patrick's Day. It amuses me how appropriate that is.

Anyway.

So, let's start with where I get seeds.

I have purchased seeds from many different companies over the years. Some have been known for their heirloom varieties. Some have been known for seeds adapted to my particular environment. At the moment, I pretty much just go for cheap seeds in larger amounts. And the best bet for those is either Burgess or Seeds 'n' Such.

These are not fancy seed companies. They have very minimal catalogs, and probably not as many options for varieties as, say, Baker Creek Seeds. But! They have a lot of seeds for very little money. So even if not every seed sprouts, you can still plant a lot and come out ahead.

Just as an example, I looked up the price of Amish Paste Tomato seeds (an heirloom variety) at both Burgess and Baker Creek. At Burgess, you can get a package of 50 seeds for $1.29. At Baker Creek, a pack of only 15 seeds is $3.00.

Sooo, less than half the seeds for more than double the price? I think the choice here is clear. 

Almost all seeds are viable for at least two years, many for three or four. So if you can get more at once and use them for several years, that's a much better option. Shipping tends to be relatively high with the seed sellers, so one order is better than multiple orders.

That said, even "expensive" seeds are pretty cheap, so it's not really a deal breaker if you're only getting a few things.

My kohlrabi seeds came from Bakers Creek because we stopped at their actual farm and seed shop in Missouri on our way to Blackrock a few years ago. The cabbage seeds are from Burgess.

Okay! Now that we have the seeds, they must be planted! 

In what?

I buy potting soil at whatever store we happen to be near when I need it. The bag I have now says it's "40 quarts by volume," and I've used it for three years. The reason it lasts so long is because I use shallow containers to start my seeds. 

Some people like to make their own potting mixes, but I don't want to bother with all the ingredients, so I just buy it. Mix that stuff up with some water in a bucket until it's damp but not dripping and put it into . . . what?

Here is where you can go to a nursery or online and buy pots or cells or trays or . . . I don't even know. So much stuff. 

I mean, check out this page of seed starting supplies. It's nuts.

I started my cabbage seeds in an old strawberry box. I like these because they already have holes in the bottom for drainage, and a top to close while the seeds are germinating. The top holds in moisture so the soil  doesn't need to be watered before the seeds sprout. 

I planted my kohlrabi seeds in a big container that had mushrooms in it. I had to cut holes in the bottom of that one with a knife.

I don't grow any of my seedlings big enough that they need deep containers. I find that they actually transplant just as well if they're smaller, and will actually establish a little better in the ground when they're not as big. Really big transplants--like the ones I used to buy at nurseries sometimes--are so big that they kind of go into shock when they're transplanted and take awhile to recover themselves.

I used to use small yogurt cups (with holes poked in the bottom) from the recycling bins at the dump for individual plants. Those big clamshells that mixed greens and things come in are really good, too.

Basically, you're looking for something plastic that can hold water, but be perforated on the bottom. I've tried those biodegradeable pots that are supposed to be planted right in the ground with the plant, but I found they get all soggy and moldy and fall apart before I plant out my transplants. So I prefer to just dig the transplants out of something plastic when it's time to transplant.

Because the actual containers the plants are in need to have holes in the bottom for drainage, the containers need to be in something else to contain the inevitable water leaks. I use some of those big "disposable" roasting pans. 

So this is what my set-up looks like.

I store my seeds in a plastic tub with a clip-on top that used to hold magnetic robots. Not pretty, but functional.

When I start pepper or tomato seeds, I do like to give them some extra heat, or they won't sprout in our chilly house. You can buy heating mats for seed starting. I just use our heating pad--the kind you use for your sore back after you've been digging garden beds--on low, wrapped in an old t-shirt. I'm sure the manufacturer has a warning against using the pad around any kind of water, but I don't actually water the seeds before they sprout because they're in damp soil in one of those covered plastic containters, so I don't worry about it too much.

You will perhaps see that I use what I have. I encourage you to do the same. I feel about gardening the same way I do about cooking: Once you learn the principles involved, you should absolutely be able to adjust your materials to accomodate your personal situation.

Now that we have our seeds nestled snugly in their soil-filled containers, we just have to wait for them to sprout. Of course, they don't need any special light while they're still under the soil. So while we're waiting for the first tiny bits of green to emerge from the soil (so exciting!), we have time to figure out the light situation for when they do sprout. 

And that will be the next topic. See you next week for that.

P.S. If any of you are gardeners, please jump in with your own preferences and experiences in the comments. There are as many ways to grow things as there are gardens, and all gardeners love to talk to other gardeners about their gardens. So talk to me! (And everyone else.)

Growing Food: An Introduction

Although my dad had small gardens in a couple of our houses when I was a kid, I didn't start gardening myself until we moved to Blackrock and I had a GIANT established vegetable garden at my feet. I learned a lot from the MiL, and made a lot of my own mistakes.

Then we moved. And we have had a garden in the three houses we've lived in since: on the Canadian border, in a narrow strip in front of our house in a tiny northern New Mexico village, and here, where we started with bare dirt that seemed devoid of life. 

All those years and all those houses have had gardens, and I have grown food. It's what I do.

Also what I do is take an excessive number of photos of things I grew (and then ate).

People have asked me quite a few times over these fifteen or so years how I garden. Although I've written a lot about my gardens, I've never written about my actual process much. I decided to do it this year, though, because it really drives me crazy that most of the things written about gardening seem to imply that it takes a lot of start-up money for products.

It doesn't have to. I've never had a fancy set-up for seed starting, but I always start seeds. I've never tested my soil, but my plants grow. I don't have a drip system for watering, tomato cages, or even a trowel I can find reliably (thanks, kids). 

Maybe I would have bigger harvests if I had those things, but even without them, I still grow food.

I'm not an expert gardener, but I have found that seeds really want to grow. Really! It's their destiny! All you need to provide for them is a good-enough environment. It doesn't even need to be perfect. Plants have a great survival drive, and will grow and produce food even in non-optimal conditions. Maybe not as much food, but always some.

Tomatoes grown without benefit of soil blocks, garden grow lights, purchased amendments, or a pH tester.

I'm not the sort of person who enjoys keeping data and being precise about things. So I don't do that. I have found over the years the way that works for me, and that is the minimal input needed to produce at least some output. Sort of lazy gardening, I suppose, although that's actually an oxymoron. Growing things is hard work, even with shortcuts.

I suppose my gardening philosophy can be summed up thusly: Grow food with the least amount of expense and effort possible.

With that in mind, tune in tomorrow for the beginning of our garden year: Seeds!

Snapshots: Vacuums and Church Stuff

I bought myself a new vacuum for Christmas. I actually bought it online the day after Christmas when the cheap one I bought only a year ago started actually blowing dirt when I turned it on.

Definitely not what I want my vacuum to be doing.

The new one is quite a bit heavier, and has an actual bag. It remains to be seen if it lasts a reasonable length of time, but it works now.

New vacuum on the right, awful old one on the left.

Hooray for a vacuum that sucks the dirt up, rather than blowing it around my house.

January is one of my mayordomo months, so I'm back to being Church Lady for awhile.

Cleaning . . .

And dressing The Infant of Prague.

That statue has little robes in all the different liturgical colors (the green is for Ordinary Time) that I assume were made for it by previous Church Ladies. Changing out the robe is one of my favorite things to do. It's like dressing a doll.

While I'm being Church Lady, the kids like to light candles and say prayers for deceased friends and relatives.

 

Man, those are some skinny kids. 

And last, the only child I have who actually asks for worksheets to do at home.

Here she's practicing writing the letter "y."

There you have it! My life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: More Tamales

Friday

Short version: Leftover tamales, ice cream

Long version: Epiphany! I made several dozen tamales before Christmas and froze a couple of bags of them. Those are the ones I steamed this evening. So I guess you could call this Christmas Redux.

The ice cream was a gallon tub of Walmart brand Neopolitan, and you know, it was pretty good. A. was surprised that the Great Value ice cream was actual ice cream, not faux "dairy dessert" garbage like most of the big tubs are. 

That's just for future reference, should you ever need need a giant container of ice cream. Which we do, because half the gallon was eaten just this night.

Saturday

Short version: Leftover pork, bread and butter, green salad with ranch dressing, cookies

Long version: This was the pork from a couple of days prior. I just pulled it apart and fried it in some of the leftover rendered lard. 

This week's cookies for the cookie jar used an opened can of condensed milk that had been in the refrigerator. I used this recipe and added chocolate chips to them. 

They were okay. Sort of like shortbread with chocolate chips. Oddly, they reminded me of chocolate chip pancakes, but in cookie form. So of course, the one child who doesn't like chocolate chip pancakes didn't like these. The rest of the kids ate them.

As I said, they were okay. Definitely not as good as a standard chocolate chip cookie, though.

Sunday

Short version: Braised chicken and potatoes, frozen green peas, more ice cream

Long version: We culled three old hens and one of them A. thought would be okay for braising. The other two I just used for stock, but this one I cooked covered in the oven with onion, garlic, tomato sauce, and some random dried rosemary from last year's garden. 

I wanted to use thyme, but I didn't seem to have any. I'm not a huge fan of rosemary, because it tends to overpower other flavors, but it was just a little and it turned out quite tasty.

Aromatics ahoy.

The best part of this chicken was that I added some of the stock made from the other two chickens to the leftovers, plus the leftover peas, and it made the most delicious soup for my work lunches this week. Yum.

Monday

Short version: Leftover tamales, chicken soup

Long version: I got my Thermos all filled with hot chicken soup and some cheese packed in my lunch bag . . . and then I forgot my lunch at home. 

Booooo.

I had a quite good salad in the cafeteria at school, and then I had my lunch for dinner. It was delicious.

Cubby, who is a big fan of all things chicken and almost all soups, had some of it, too. Everyone else had tamales.

Tuesday

Short version: Sirloin steaks, garlic bread, carrot sticks with curry dip

Long version: I hadn't made curry dip in awhile (mayonnaise+sweet yellow curry powder). It really is amazingly good with carrot sticks. Pretty good with the steak, too, actually.

Wednesday

Short version: Chicken quesadillas; various leftovers; raw broccoli, bell pepper, and green beans

Long version: The quesadillas--leftover chicken and salsa with cheese in flour tortillas--were for the kids. A. had a plate of the last of the pork and steak, plus the last few tamales, all covered with salsa.

I got a Misfits Market box for the first time in many, many months, and it included the broccoli and bell pepper the kids ate before dinner, plus the green beans they ate with their dinner. 

I sauteed some of the green beans with some of the leftover chicken and had that for my dinner, with a microwaved sweet potato that also came in the box.

I had been resisting getting a Misfits Market box because it makes me sad to have to buy produce, but since I don't overwinter anything in my garden, it was definitely time. And I was very excited to have all that produce. So next year, someone remind me not to wait until after the new year to start ordering from them again.

Thursday

Short version: Buckwheat pancakes, bean burrito, Cheez-its, Larabar

Long version: I was at school for a teachers' meeting and then went to the basketball games. In between I raided Jack's snack box in his classroom. That's where I got the Cheez-its. 

After Cubby's basketball game, he got a bean burrito at the concession stand. I grabbed a Larabar from the teacher's workroom.

A. made the buckwheat pancakes for the home crew, and I ate the leftover cold pancakes on the kids' plates when I got home.

Just keeping it real here.

Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?

Resolutely Storebought

A. was in a Walmart the other day in one of the larger towns we sometimes shop in, and on his list were both flour and corn tortillas. He dutifully got the tortillas, and then, while he was stopped and examining the hams, a middle-aged Spanish lady looked in his cart and admonished him for buying tortillas.

"Those are no good!" she said. "I always make my own. Your wife should make your tortillas."

Yes, I know. I should. 

However.

I can make tortillas. I do sometimes make tortillas. But I do not like making tortillas. Anything that has to be made individually is a huge pain when feeding six people, four of whom eat a LOT. Making enough tortillas for all of us to have them with a meal takes almost an hour, and, in the case of flour tortillas, requires rolling them on the counter.

Downer.

If all I was making in a day was tortillas and frijoles--traditional fare here in New Mexico--then I probably wouldn't even think about spending that hour making the tortillas. But I'm not. I'm making bread and pizza and yogurt and cookies and granola and chicken stock and coleslaw and LOTS of meat.

So tortillas are something I am willing to buy, even though, yes, the ones I sometimes make are a lot better than the ones we can buy.

We all make choices about our priorities. And my priority right now just isn't exclusively homemade tortillas. 

I'm okay with this, even if Walmart lady isn't.

So tell me: What is something you have decided is definitely not worth doing for you, even if others don't agree?

Snapshots: Early Morning

The moon was still so bright on Saturday morning just before sunrise that it almost hurt to look at it.

Meanwhile, the sun had yet to make its appearance.

Who's that I see peeking over the fence?

Good morning, Bill. Hay coming right up.

You're welcome.

Have some ice water, too. (That's an old ax I use to break the ice in the tank.)

There you have it! My (early morning) life, snapshotted.

Friday Food: Home Food Is the Best Food

Friday 

Short version: Catfish, sausage, cheese and crackers, raw tomatoes and carrots, ice cream smorgasbord

Long version: A. took Cubby and Jack fishing in the morning. Cubby caught a stingray (which A. threw back, just because he was so rattled to be handling a stingray, and then he regretted it), and some catfish. Although the crew of the boat we were on the day before threw the catfish back, A. has eaten freshwater catfish and wanted to see if the saltwater catfish were any different. 

Charter boat fishing, during which we caught several catfish, none of which the crew wanted to keep.

They weren't. Except for the fact that it was harder to get the fillets off of them because of their big, hard heads.

The catfish were pretty small, so the fillets were only enough for everyone to have a taste. That's why I also made some spicy pork sausage.

Poppy had been asking if we could go get ice cream, but none of the ice cream stands were open. I mean, it felt warm to us, but it is winter, and ice cream is pretty seasonal.

So we got some Blue Bell (a Texas brand) ice cream at the grocery store. No one in our family ever agrees on anything, so we got four pints of different kinds, instead of a half gallon of one kind. Thus, the children all got to sample chocolate/vanilla, butter pecan, cookies and cream, and mint chocolate chip.

And then, since we couldn't really bring the ice cream with us on our trip home (more's the pity), they got to have seconds to finish it off.

Now that's a good day.

Saturday

Short version: An elegant New Year's Eve at Chubby's restaurant

Long version: That was actually the name of the place where we ate in Brady, Texas. We stopped there for the night on our way home, and Chubby's was the closest place to our motel. It wasn't bad. Nothing exciting. We got chicken, hamburgers, and a salad for me, and it was acceptable, if not exceptional.

Sunday

Short version: A happy new year feast from the freezer

Long version: If you've been reading here for any length of time, you'll perhaps remember that I always make pork, black-eyed peas, greens, and rice for our New Year's Day meal to ensure our health, wealth, and happiness in the new year. (And harmony, which is what my children have assigned to the rice.)

It's a tradition I inherited from my mother, who grew up in New Orleans. I've done it every single year for at least twenty years. It's important to me that we have this, so I made sure we would still be able to have our traditional meal even though we didn't get home until 4 p.m. on New Year's Day.

I made the black-eyed peas before we left and put them in the freezer. The greens were some beet greens from the garden I had frozen in the summer. The pork was the extra from the pork shoulder I made the day before we left, also frozen.

So all I had to do was microwave the black-eyed peas and beet greens, thaw the pork in a covered pan with some water and then fry it, and make some rice.

This is always a tasty meal, but it is particularly delicious after two days of road food.

Monday

Short version: Bunless cheeseburgers, potato soup, leftover rice, green salad with ranch dressing

Long version: We have had what seems like a continuous round of sore throats, snotty noses, and general ickiness for like two weeks. I thought everyone was mostly recovered, but one child woke up with a sore throat this morning.

Curses.

I made the potato soup with my last five small potatoes and some of the dehydrated potato flakes to further thicken it. Also bacon, onion, milk, rooster stock, sour cream, and cream. It came out very well, but how could it not, with all that dairy in it?

Those who are not enamored of soup had the rice.

Tuesday

Short version: Sausage-y meatloaf, garlic bread, frozen peas

Long version: There was about 3/4 pound of ground beef left from the night before, which I combined with about an equal amount of Sysco breakfast sausage to make meatloaf. The sausage adds a lot of flavor, as well as some needed fat.

I also made peanut butter cookies this day to fill the cookie jar again, at Calvin's request. I used this recipe for the first time, and not only does it make a superior peanut butter cookie, the recipe as written made 72 somewhat small cookies. Which exactly filled the cookie jar. How pleasing.

Minus a few that had to be sampled by my juvenile quality control before they made it to the cookie jar, of course.

Wednesday

Short version: Carnitas tacos, rice pudding

Long version: We had to be at church until about 5:30 p.m., after being gone most of the afternoon, so I needed to make something ahead of time that would be quick to get on the table when we got home. I also had half a gallon of milk that wasn't great for drinking anymore, but was fine for rice pudding.

So. Since I had the rice pudding in for a few hours anyway, I stuck in a pork shoulder to cook, too. Then when I got home, all I had to do was fry pieces of it in its own rendered lard with some taco-ish spices (chile powder, cumin, garlic powder) and serve it in corn tortillas with cheese.

Thursday

Short version: Pizza, green salad with ranch dressing

Long version: This was Jack's raincheck birthday dinner, when I couldn't make it for his actual birthday as requested because of the nasty flour. I waited until now, because he two loose teeth that lined up so that he really couldn't chew very well, much less bite pizza. One of the teeth came out a couple of days ago, though, so he was okay with pizza again.

I had some of the breakfast sausage left, which I browned and put on one pizza. The other was just cheese.

Okay, your turn! What'd you eat this week?