Our sump pump kicked on late last night, and twice today so far... YAY!!!!!!!!
It ran pretty regularly, ranging from a few times a week to a few times a day for the first year and a half since we moved in. Then by the end of May last year no pumping. We hit into the drought and since June on it's been too dry for the sump pump to run.
But now with some recent heavy snow and a bit of rain the water has been seeping in fast and deep to the ground. So much so that the pump is running again.
I'm keeping my eye on the drought monitor of course. Farmers Almanac is promising some more precipitation into the next couple months too.
We live in an extremely water rich area. We live on the edge of a football field size pond big enough to show up on google maps among a large cluster of ponds and lakes only a mile away from Lake Michigan.
But last year we fell into the moderate drought range. The pond we lived on dropped by at least 10-12 inches. Our neighbor has a springboard on the pond, and it used to touch or just hover the water... Now the gap is huge. The pond down by the corner that was full of lillies in 2011 was a green scum dressed mud pit in 2012.
By the time July hit, I was sending my love to Aarron for his fire safety speeches, and my sister for coming out for a weekend of major yard cleanup in the spring that made our home a much more zone clear place. I couldn't keep my plants wet enough to grow, let alone produce in the flat soil.
I've watched our back neighbors cart in rolls of feed hay since late spring instead of seeing the horses graze the pasture till fall with some square bales being carted in now and again.
But the pond at the end of the road was seeing standing water since a bit before Thanksgiving.. A good sign. And now the sump pump kicked in. An excellent sign.
It's almost enough to bestir myself out of my gloom and once again look forward to something this year. I've been awfully depressed lately about a lot of things. But the promise of possibly having enough wet again to make some plans worthwhile is hopeful.
And lol. Now that I have watched the exit pipe a couple times... I totally buried the crap out of the drainage area with leaves. On the bright side, a couple of the sages should get some excellent watering if the flow happens regularly again.
And I'm thinking I might still do a bit of deck over in the area.. and maybe plant in the rest of the tiny field with bread poppies.
House history.. We found out recently that our little cellar was once a walk out basement. Apparently is was built in that way and at one point Dave walled up the area and filled in the hill to what it is today. That explains the weird patch hole- I thought it had been a window, but it seems that it had been a door. I didn't ask about the rest of the basement fill in.
I also found out that the hill we are built on was not made from the leftovers of the pond digging. This hill was here naturally, and the extent of the pond dug was how much peat could be cut out.
We are taking in Nova tomorrow for his neutering preop. They need to establish his record before we can schedule the surgery. It's overripe time for it. It will be interesting to know just how much fuckerhead weighs now- when we got him in Oct he was just a hair smaller than Ocelot- now he is bigger than Marbles by a noticeable bit, and gaining on Pooks.
I know he won't like the travel for preop, but I think he can deal. I'm a bit more worried about the surgery. We will be dropping on a Mon, surgery Tues, Pickup Wed. He is such a mama's boy, and a hater of confinement, and extremely vocal. I should probably warn the vets about his cuddly lover action.
We got in some seeds yesterday.. Pink Banana and White Cushaw squashes. From a friend, and I was well pleased to see them.
But the weather is kicking up again, and it's time to make some dinner... Homemade mac and cheese with ham...
MMM, good cold and blustery weather food. Boiling up the noodles and such heats up the kitchen with some nice moist heat, and the dinner is warm clinging goodness to your ribs.
I do it up kind of different every time depending on whats in the house.. This time?
1 1/2 c dry medium shells, cooked up in salted water
can of small peas
cup of ham from the roast the other night
can mushroom soup
half cup or so velveeta
palmful parsley
T dill
t magic dust
t pepper
splashes milk
boil pasta, set to drain
in same pan heat mushroom soup, start dumping in cheese bits at time. Use a couple splashes milk to make it more of a sauce and less a cheese concrete. Add in ham, stir. Add in pasta, stir. Add in seasonings, stir, and adjust if necessary. Add in peas, stir. Serve up.
Yum....
Welcome to Growbox Hill
Welcome to Growbox HIll!
Wednesday, January 30, 2013
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Wow, had to call the cops...
Had some strange going on, and I actually had to call the cops today.
A couple weeks ago, some guys were delivering phonebooks, dropping them on the porches. One was going house to house, and the other was driving the car as they went along. Well, you bet my watchful ass caught sight of this, and I answered the door and got the phone book from him. He then went and hung a book on the other door before running back down the driveway and getting into the car. The guy didn't look old enough to be out of high school, and it was the middle of a weekday.
I thought this was pretty darn odd, but hey, maybe out here the phone book folks are nice like that right? Even though we had gotten our other phone book in our mailbox.
Went into town shortly after that, and tried to notice bagged books on porches. I was sort of surprised at how few there were, maybe there are more people around their homes during the day than I realized?
So ok, we thought the whole thing smacked of something really not right, but then it wasn't really not right enough to call the cops, or even mention it to the neighbors really.
Now today... Same car put puts down the road and coasts up the driveway of the Fontanos. All the way up to the garage. But then my love was standing in his office window, and they promptly put put coasted right back out of the driveway and then took off the same direction they came from. And really creep putting, the engine sounded like either it wasn't getting enough gas and he had to keep revving to keep it running, or the guy wasn't good at driving stick so slow and was gassing funny to keep it from stalling.. Just really distinctive and not what the car sounded like once they got up to speed when back on the road.
We are almost positive it was the same car that dropped off the phone books. Mid to late 80's angular square shitbox, all red except for a flat black hood, with tinted rear triangle windows. Nope, clueless as to what model it was, I am not that good with all makes and models.
Didn't see the hood the first time, but those back windows were distinctive enough to trigger recall.
My love and I talk about it, and yeah, he thinks it's the same car too, and it really did act oddly this time.
So, I called my neighbor. He's a volunteer cop, so I figure he can tell me if this is something to worry about or not. I chatted with his wife, and find out that no, phone book droppers are not supposed to do porch drops, they are supposed to do mailbox drops. The guys were probably fishing that day. They were probably doing a porch check next door- good thing the Fontanos had indeed stopped by between then and now, they snuck in and out the other night when there was so much snow. They might not be my favorite neighbors, but hey, I don't want anyone getting tapped if I was paying attention and could have prevented it.
So her advice was- she would for sure call it in, so yeah, I probably should. So I did. I have never before in my life had to call in something like this. I felt kind of stupid, like I was over assuming, but it was just so strange, and I wasn't the only one who thought that.
Wow, had to call the cops.
A couple weeks ago, some guys were delivering phonebooks, dropping them on the porches. One was going house to house, and the other was driving the car as they went along. Well, you bet my watchful ass caught sight of this, and I answered the door and got the phone book from him. He then went and hung a book on the other door before running back down the driveway and getting into the car. The guy didn't look old enough to be out of high school, and it was the middle of a weekday.
I thought this was pretty darn odd, but hey, maybe out here the phone book folks are nice like that right? Even though we had gotten our other phone book in our mailbox.
Went into town shortly after that, and tried to notice bagged books on porches. I was sort of surprised at how few there were, maybe there are more people around their homes during the day than I realized?
So ok, we thought the whole thing smacked of something really not right, but then it wasn't really not right enough to call the cops, or even mention it to the neighbors really.
Now today... Same car put puts down the road and coasts up the driveway of the Fontanos. All the way up to the garage. But then my love was standing in his office window, and they promptly put put coasted right back out of the driveway and then took off the same direction they came from. And really creep putting, the engine sounded like either it wasn't getting enough gas and he had to keep revving to keep it running, or the guy wasn't good at driving stick so slow and was gassing funny to keep it from stalling.. Just really distinctive and not what the car sounded like once they got up to speed when back on the road.
We are almost positive it was the same car that dropped off the phone books. Mid to late 80's angular square shitbox, all red except for a flat black hood, with tinted rear triangle windows. Nope, clueless as to what model it was, I am not that good with all makes and models.
Didn't see the hood the first time, but those back windows were distinctive enough to trigger recall.
My love and I talk about it, and yeah, he thinks it's the same car too, and it really did act oddly this time.
So, I called my neighbor. He's a volunteer cop, so I figure he can tell me if this is something to worry about or not. I chatted with his wife, and find out that no, phone book droppers are not supposed to do porch drops, they are supposed to do mailbox drops. The guys were probably fishing that day. They were probably doing a porch check next door- good thing the Fontanos had indeed stopped by between then and now, they snuck in and out the other night when there was so much snow. They might not be my favorite neighbors, but hey, I don't want anyone getting tapped if I was paying attention and could have prevented it.
So her advice was- she would for sure call it in, so yeah, I probably should. So I did. I have never before in my life had to call in something like this. I felt kind of stupid, like I was over assuming, but it was just so strange, and I wasn't the only one who thought that.
Wow, had to call the cops.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Avoiding GMO seeds
Last year I put up a post about GMO seeds. It was rather late in the seed ordering season and into the buying plants season, and I think this subject is definitely worthy of posting about again. This time earlier in the season for the sake of seeds.
It's that time of year when we get piles of catalogs, make wish lists and orders, think about picking up that packet or few off the rack at the local hardware place. Or later on in the season, buying plants at the local big box hardware or building store, megamart or greengrower.
But do you know if you are buying GMO, or if your purchase is going into coffers you would rather not enrich? Avoiding Monsanto/Seminis seed is a good start.
Note: Not all of the veggie varieties in the below list are Monsanto/Seminis exclusives. Consequently if you spot some of these varieties in the catalog of an heirloom seed-seller or plants in a local nursery spot, just check with the seller to make sure the seeds or plants were not purchased from Seminis/Monsanto.
But if you find these seeds on a rack at a big-box garden center, or later spot these plants for sale in the same places, you have every right to suspect they were purchased from the evil empire.
Seminis Products as of January 2013. This is the full list of direct to home gardener as well as commercial seed so you might not see some of these in seed form, but rather you might be eating them out of the fields instead.
Beans: Aliconte, Bronco, Cadillac, Ebro, Etna, Eureka, Gina, Goldmine, Labrador, Lynx, Magnum, Matador, Spartacus, Strike, Stringless Blue Lake 7, Tapia, Tema, Brio, Carlo, Excalibur, Fandango, Festina, Golddust, Gold Rush, Grenoble, Opus, Pony Express, Romano Gold, Sea Biscuit, Secretariat, Serin, Storm, Sunburst, Teggia, Thoroughbred, Unidor, Valentino, First Mate, Golden Child, Hercules, Slenderpak, Titan, Ulysses.
Beans, dry: Black Velvet, Cabernet, Chianti, Etna, Hooter, Mariah, Medicine Hat, Pink Panther, Red Rover, Windbreaker,
Broccoli: Packman, Captain, Castle Dome, Contributor, Coronado Crown, General, Heritage, Iron, Ironman, Legacy, Liberty, Major, Revolution, Tlaloc, Tradition.
Cabbage: Platinum Dynasty, Red Dynasty, Blue Dynasty, Constellation, Tropicana
Carrot: Bilbo, Envy, Forto, Juliana, Karina, Sweetness III, Abledo, Achieve, Cello Bunch, Dominion, Enterprise, Legend, Propeel, Tastypeel, PS 07101441
Cauliflower: Cheddar, Minuteman, Fremont, Cielo Blanco, Cornell, Freedom, Juneau, Whistler.
Cucumber: Babylon, Cool Breeze Imp., Dasher II, Emporator, Eureka, Fanfare HG, Marketmore 76, Orient Express II, Poinsett 76, Rockingham, Salad Bush, Sweet Slice, Sweet Success PS, Talladega, SV3462CS, SV4719CS, Conquistador, Indy, Intimidator, Speedway, Thunder, Thunderbird, Turbo, Arabian, Colt, Expedition, Powerpak, Vlaspic, Vlasset, Vlasstar.
Eggplant: Fairytale, Gretel, Hansel
Lettuce: Braveheart, Conquistador, Annie, Bubba, Coyote, Dol Oro, Desert Spring Grizzly, Honcho II, Javelina, Mowhawk, Raider, Sahara, Sharp Shooter, Sniper, Sure Shot, Top Billings, Valley Heart.
Melon: Early Dew, Sante Fe, Saturno, Cabrillo, Caravelle, Colima, Cristobal, Destacado, Durango, Earli-Dew, Earlisweet, Fast Break, Honeydew Green Flesh, High Mark, Laredo, Magellen, Mission, Moonshine, Roadside, Zeus
Onion: Candy, Century, Red Zeppelin, Savannah Sweet, Sierra Blanca, Sterling, Abilene, Affirmed, Aspen, Barbaro, Belmar, Bunker, Caballero, Cannonball, Ceylon, Champlain, Charismatic, Cirrus, Cougar, Exacta, Fortress, Gelma, Golden Spike, Goldeneye, Grateful Red, Hamlet, Joliet, Leona, Mackenzie, Margarette, Mercedes, Mercury, Montblanc, Nicolet, Orizaba, Pecos, Rainier, Stratus, Swale, Tioga, Verrazano, Vision.
Pepper, Hot: Big Bomb, Big Chile brand of Sahuaro, Burning Bush brand of Chichen Itza, Cayenne Large Red Thick, Chichimeca, Corcel, Garden Salsa SG, Holy Mole brand of Salvatierro, Mariachi brand of Rio de Oro, Mesilla, Milta, Super Chile, Aquiles, Ball Park, Cardon, Caribbean Red, Cherry Bomb, Chichen Itza, Cocula, Coyame, Fresnillo, Grande, Habanero, Hot Spot (with X3R), Hungarian Yellow Hot Wax, Inferno, Ixtapa (with X3R), Kulkulkan, Major League, Nainari, Nazas, Papaloapan, Perfecto, Rebelde, Rio de Oro, Sahurao, Salvatierra, Santa Fe Grande, Sayula (with X3R), Tajin, Tam Veracrus, Time Bomb, Tula, Tuxlas, Vencedor, Victorioso.
Pepper, Sweet: Aristotle (with X3R), Baron, Bell Boy, Big Bertha PS, Bounty, Camelot, Capistrano, Cherry Pick, Chocolate Beauty, Corno Verde, Early Sunsation, Fooled You brand of Dulce, Giant Marconi, Gypsy, Jumper, Key West (with X3R), King Arthur, North Star, Orange Blaze, Pimiento Elite, Red Knight (with X3R), Socrates (with X3R), Aladdin (with X3R), Antillo (with X3R), Archimedes, Biscayne, California Wonder 300, Camelot X3R, Early Sunsation (with X3R), Enterprise (with X3R), Ethem, Excalibur, Mar Rojo (with X3R), Petite Sirah, Plato (with X3R), Prophet (with X3R), Revelation (with X3R), Sir Galahad (with X3R), Sweet Spot (with X3R), Valiant, Wizard (with X3R).
Pumpkin: Jamboree HG, Orange Smoothie, Prize Winner, Snackface, Trickster, Appalachian, Buckskin, Longface, Phantom, Spirit, Spooktacular, Wyatt's Wonder.
Spinach: Hellcat, Avenger, Barbados.
Squash: Ambassador, Canesi, Commander, Dixie, Early Butternut, Gold Rush, Grey Zucchini, Greyzini, Lolita, Peter Pan, Richgreen Hybrid Zucchini, Storr’s Green, Sungreen, Sunny Delight, Taybelle PM, Conqueror III, Consul R, Daisey, Depredator, Embassy, Gemma, Independence II, Judgement III, Justice III, Papaya Pear, Patty Green Tint, Prelude II, President, Progreen, Quirinal, Radiant, Senator, Terminator, Autumn Delight, Butternut Supreme, Pasta.
Sweet Corn: Devotion, Fantasia, Merit, Obession, Passion, Temptation, Obsession II, Passion II, Temptation II, Absolute, SEneca Arrowhead, Sensor, Synergy, Vitality.
Tomato: Amsterdam, APT 410, Beefmaster, Betterboy, Big Beef, Biltmore, Burpee’s Big Boy, Caramba, Celebrity, Cupid, Debut, Health kick, Heatmaster, Husky Red, Husky Cherry Red, Lemon Boy, Patio, Phoenix, Pink Girl, Pio, Poseidon 43, Sun Sugar, Sweet Baby Girl, Tye-Dye, Viva Italia, Yaqui, Crown Jewel, Empire, Flora-dade, Florida 47 R, Florida91, Huichol, Maya, Picus, Puebla, Quincy, Sanibel, Seri, Sunbrite, SunChief, SunGuard, Sunoma, Sunstart, SunShine, Tygress.
Watermelon: Charleston Grey, Crimson Sweet, Jade Star, Mickyle, Apollo, Coopers Town, Crimson Glory, Cronos, Delta, Majestic, Omega, Regency, Royal Sweet, Sentinel, StarBright, StarGazer, Tiger Baby, Wrigley.
Who to avoid that sells Monsanto/Seminis seeds? Well, pretty much anything that is found in regular hardware, farm, or gardening stores. Pretty much all the regular big seed catalogs too- right now on my desk is a stack of no-no's- I like to make origami seed envelopes out of them :)
Miller Nurseries
Thompson & Morgan
Gurneys
Burgess
Jung Seeds
Totally Tomatoes
Vermont Bean
Gardens Alive
R.H. Shumway's
Burpee
Now I'm not trying to say that any of the No-no companies exclusively sell Monsanto or Seminis seeds. All of them have products that are pretty likely not M/S related. If you don't care about GMO stuff, don't really matter if you buy from them or not. However, if you want to do seed saving and/or sharing, smart advice is just don't get seeds from these kinds of sources. If you think you are being nice to that seed collector you know... Well, they will probably be happy to get seed, and might grow it, but it's unlikely they will try to save seed from it.
Here's the handy link to the 2012 safe seed pledge- http://www.councilforresponsiblegenetics.org/ViewPage.aspx?pageId=261
There isn't any information out yet about the 2013 pledge, sorry about that. I also got a stack of let's go catalogs. I could only dream of getting all the seed I want from these folks :) And yeah, I save their catalogs too for making into envelopes :)
The Potato Garden
Wood Prairie Farm
Nichols Garden Nursery
Seed Savers Exchange
Territorial Seed
Baker Creek Seed
High Mowing Seed
NE Seed
Pinetree Seed- I use this one the most
Johnny's Selected Seeds
Botanical Interests
Now I am trying to say you should get seed from sources like these. I know I've seen Baker Creek, Seed Savers, and Botanical Interests on the shelves at good stores. Sometimes it really is worth it to be patient and get your seeds in the mail. For the seed collector, these are viable seed sources worth growing, saving, and sharing and growing again.
Terms to look out for while looking :)
Heirloom- while this isn't a 100% guarantee of seed goodness, it's a lot less likely there has been any genetic tampering.
Re-introduced- Old seed makes a comeback. Sometimes these are great heirlooms.
Pre-1960 seed origins- GMO really only has been around for a few decades. Until then there was some intense breeding, but no monkeying around with cell or DNA stuff really.
University of whatever school- Chances are they are doing intensive breeding more than genetic tampering.
F1, su, VW, and a whole bunch of other letters that go with seed. Don't be scared of these, most of them were created through intensive breeding, not genetic tampering.
Open Pollinated- usually those are good for seed saving.
Pelleted, coated, inoculated, dusted, whatever- Usually it's ok, but if you aren't positive about your seed source, be leery of what they are putting on your seed.
Organic. This is a term to be really wary of. Organic has a lot of different meanings, some of them are clearly legally defined, some of them not so much. Principally, it means that your seeds were grown in an organic environment. It can also mean that the parent seed was organic and all that jazz. It can also mean that the parent seed is not GMO and the offspring seed has been found not to be adulterated with any GMO substance. But it does not always mean the parent seed was organic or that the offspring seed was tested for adulteration of GMO cross pollinators.
I can buy some pepper seed from a questionable company, grow it 100% organic, and call my offspring seed organic seed.
So.. Plan a Victory early this year in your garden.
It's that time of year when we get piles of catalogs, make wish lists and orders, think about picking up that packet or few off the rack at the local hardware place. Or later on in the season, buying plants at the local big box hardware or building store, megamart or greengrower.
But do you know if you are buying GMO, or if your purchase is going into coffers you would rather not enrich? Avoiding Monsanto/Seminis seed is a good start.
Note: Not all of the veggie varieties in the below list are Monsanto/Seminis exclusives. Consequently if you spot some of these varieties in the catalog of an heirloom seed-seller or plants in a local nursery spot, just check with the seller to make sure the seeds or plants were not purchased from Seminis/Monsanto.
But if you find these seeds on a rack at a big-box garden center, or later spot these plants for sale in the same places, you have every right to suspect they were purchased from the evil empire.
Seminis Products as of January 2013. This is the full list of direct to home gardener as well as commercial seed so you might not see some of these in seed form, but rather you might be eating them out of the fields instead.
Beans: Aliconte, Bronco, Cadillac, Ebro, Etna, Eureka, Gina, Goldmine, Labrador, Lynx, Magnum, Matador, Spartacus, Strike, Stringless Blue Lake 7, Tapia, Tema, Brio, Carlo, Excalibur, Fandango, Festina, Golddust, Gold Rush, Grenoble, Opus, Pony Express, Romano Gold, Sea Biscuit, Secretariat, Serin, Storm, Sunburst, Teggia, Thoroughbred, Unidor, Valentino, First Mate, Golden Child, Hercules, Slenderpak, Titan, Ulysses.
Beans, dry: Black Velvet, Cabernet, Chianti, Etna, Hooter, Mariah, Medicine Hat, Pink Panther, Red Rover, Windbreaker,
Broccoli: Packman, Captain, Castle Dome, Contributor, Coronado Crown, General, Heritage, Iron, Ironman, Legacy, Liberty, Major, Revolution, Tlaloc, Tradition.
Cabbage: Platinum Dynasty, Red Dynasty, Blue Dynasty, Constellation, Tropicana
Carrot: Bilbo, Envy, Forto, Juliana, Karina, Sweetness III, Abledo, Achieve, Cello Bunch, Dominion, Enterprise, Legend, Propeel, Tastypeel, PS 07101441
Cauliflower: Cheddar, Minuteman, Fremont, Cielo Blanco, Cornell, Freedom, Juneau, Whistler.
Cucumber: Babylon, Cool Breeze Imp., Dasher II, Emporator, Eureka, Fanfare HG, Marketmore 76, Orient Express II, Poinsett 76, Rockingham, Salad Bush, Sweet Slice, Sweet Success PS, Talladega, SV3462CS, SV4719CS, Conquistador, Indy, Intimidator, Speedway, Thunder, Thunderbird, Turbo, Arabian, Colt, Expedition, Powerpak, Vlaspic, Vlasset, Vlasstar.
Eggplant: Fairytale, Gretel, Hansel
Lettuce: Braveheart, Conquistador, Annie, Bubba, Coyote, Dol Oro, Desert Spring Grizzly, Honcho II, Javelina, Mowhawk, Raider, Sahara, Sharp Shooter, Sniper, Sure Shot, Top Billings, Valley Heart.
Melon: Early Dew, Sante Fe, Saturno, Cabrillo, Caravelle, Colima, Cristobal, Destacado, Durango, Earli-Dew, Earlisweet, Fast Break, Honeydew Green Flesh, High Mark, Laredo, Magellen, Mission, Moonshine, Roadside, Zeus
Onion: Candy, Century, Red Zeppelin, Savannah Sweet, Sierra Blanca, Sterling, Abilene, Affirmed, Aspen, Barbaro, Belmar, Bunker, Caballero, Cannonball, Ceylon, Champlain, Charismatic, Cirrus, Cougar, Exacta, Fortress, Gelma, Golden Spike, Goldeneye, Grateful Red, Hamlet, Joliet, Leona, Mackenzie, Margarette, Mercedes, Mercury, Montblanc, Nicolet, Orizaba, Pecos, Rainier, Stratus, Swale, Tioga, Verrazano, Vision.
Pepper, Hot: Big Bomb, Big Chile brand of Sahuaro, Burning Bush brand of Chichen Itza, Cayenne Large Red Thick, Chichimeca, Corcel, Garden Salsa SG, Holy Mole brand of Salvatierro, Mariachi brand of Rio de Oro, Mesilla, Milta, Super Chile, Aquiles, Ball Park, Cardon, Caribbean Red, Cherry Bomb, Chichen Itza, Cocula, Coyame, Fresnillo, Grande, Habanero, Hot Spot (with X3R), Hungarian Yellow Hot Wax, Inferno, Ixtapa (with X3R), Kulkulkan, Major League, Nainari, Nazas, Papaloapan, Perfecto, Rebelde, Rio de Oro, Sahurao, Salvatierra, Santa Fe Grande, Sayula (with X3R), Tajin, Tam Veracrus, Time Bomb, Tula, Tuxlas, Vencedor, Victorioso.
Pepper, Sweet: Aristotle (with X3R), Baron, Bell Boy, Big Bertha PS, Bounty, Camelot, Capistrano, Cherry Pick, Chocolate Beauty, Corno Verde, Early Sunsation, Fooled You brand of Dulce, Giant Marconi, Gypsy, Jumper, Key West (with X3R), King Arthur, North Star, Orange Blaze, Pimiento Elite, Red Knight (with X3R), Socrates (with X3R), Aladdin (with X3R), Antillo (with X3R), Archimedes, Biscayne, California Wonder 300, Camelot X3R, Early Sunsation (with X3R), Enterprise (with X3R), Ethem, Excalibur, Mar Rojo (with X3R), Petite Sirah, Plato (with X3R), Prophet (with X3R), Revelation (with X3R), Sir Galahad (with X3R), Sweet Spot (with X3R), Valiant, Wizard (with X3R).
Pumpkin: Jamboree HG, Orange Smoothie, Prize Winner, Snackface, Trickster, Appalachian, Buckskin, Longface, Phantom, Spirit, Spooktacular, Wyatt's Wonder.
Spinach: Hellcat, Avenger, Barbados.
Squash: Ambassador, Canesi, Commander, Dixie, Early Butternut, Gold Rush, Grey Zucchini, Greyzini, Lolita, Peter Pan, Richgreen Hybrid Zucchini, Storr’s Green, Sungreen, Sunny Delight, Taybelle PM, Conqueror III, Consul R, Daisey, Depredator, Embassy, Gemma, Independence II, Judgement III, Justice III, Papaya Pear, Patty Green Tint, Prelude II, President, Progreen, Quirinal, Radiant, Senator, Terminator, Autumn Delight, Butternut Supreme, Pasta.
Sweet Corn: Devotion, Fantasia, Merit, Obession, Passion, Temptation, Obsession II, Passion II, Temptation II, Absolute, SEneca Arrowhead, Sensor, Synergy, Vitality.
Tomato: Amsterdam, APT 410, Beefmaster, Betterboy, Big Beef, Biltmore, Burpee’s Big Boy, Caramba, Celebrity, Cupid, Debut, Health kick, Heatmaster, Husky Red, Husky Cherry Red, Lemon Boy, Patio, Phoenix, Pink Girl, Pio, Poseidon 43, Sun Sugar, Sweet Baby Girl, Tye-Dye, Viva Italia, Yaqui, Crown Jewel, Empire, Flora-dade, Florida 47 R, Florida91, Huichol, Maya, Picus, Puebla, Quincy, Sanibel, Seri, Sunbrite, SunChief, SunGuard, Sunoma, Sunstart, SunShine, Tygress.
Watermelon: Charleston Grey, Crimson Sweet, Jade Star, Mickyle, Apollo, Coopers Town, Crimson Glory, Cronos, Delta, Majestic, Omega, Regency, Royal Sweet, Sentinel, StarBright, StarGazer, Tiger Baby, Wrigley.
Who to avoid that sells Monsanto/Seminis seeds? Well, pretty much anything that is found in regular hardware, farm, or gardening stores. Pretty much all the regular big seed catalogs too- right now on my desk is a stack of no-no's- I like to make origami seed envelopes out of them :)
Miller Nurseries
Thompson & Morgan
Gurneys
Burgess
Jung Seeds
Totally Tomatoes
Vermont Bean
Gardens Alive
R.H. Shumway's
Burpee
Now I'm not trying to say that any of the No-no companies exclusively sell Monsanto or Seminis seeds. All of them have products that are pretty likely not M/S related. If you don't care about GMO stuff, don't really matter if you buy from them or not. However, if you want to do seed saving and/or sharing, smart advice is just don't get seeds from these kinds of sources. If you think you are being nice to that seed collector you know... Well, they will probably be happy to get seed, and might grow it, but it's unlikely they will try to save seed from it.
Here's the handy link to the 2012 safe seed pledge- http://www.councilforresponsiblegenetics.org/ViewPage.aspx?pageId=261
There isn't any information out yet about the 2013 pledge, sorry about that. I also got a stack of let's go catalogs. I could only dream of getting all the seed I want from these folks :) And yeah, I save their catalogs too for making into envelopes :)
The Potato Garden
Wood Prairie Farm
Nichols Garden Nursery
Seed Savers Exchange
Territorial Seed
Baker Creek Seed
High Mowing Seed
NE Seed
Pinetree Seed- I use this one the most
Johnny's Selected Seeds
Botanical Interests
Now I am trying to say you should get seed from sources like these. I know I've seen Baker Creek, Seed Savers, and Botanical Interests on the shelves at good stores. Sometimes it really is worth it to be patient and get your seeds in the mail. For the seed collector, these are viable seed sources worth growing, saving, and sharing and growing again.
Terms to look out for while looking :)
Heirloom- while this isn't a 100% guarantee of seed goodness, it's a lot less likely there has been any genetic tampering.
Re-introduced- Old seed makes a comeback. Sometimes these are great heirlooms.
Pre-1960 seed origins- GMO really only has been around for a few decades. Until then there was some intense breeding, but no monkeying around with cell or DNA stuff really.
University of whatever school- Chances are they are doing intensive breeding more than genetic tampering.
F1, su, VW, and a whole bunch of other letters that go with seed. Don't be scared of these, most of them were created through intensive breeding, not genetic tampering.
Open Pollinated- usually those are good for seed saving.
Pelleted, coated, inoculated, dusted, whatever- Usually it's ok, but if you aren't positive about your seed source, be leery of what they are putting on your seed.
Organic. This is a term to be really wary of. Organic has a lot of different meanings, some of them are clearly legally defined, some of them not so much. Principally, it means that your seeds were grown in an organic environment. It can also mean that the parent seed was organic and all that jazz. It can also mean that the parent seed is not GMO and the offspring seed has been found not to be adulterated with any GMO substance. But it does not always mean the parent seed was organic or that the offspring seed was tested for adulteration of GMO cross pollinators.
I can buy some pepper seed from a questionable company, grow it 100% organic, and call my offspring seed organic seed.
So.. Plan a Victory early this year in your garden.
Friday, December 28, 2012
And so it was Christmas...
Christmas didn't quite go as planned this year.
Didn't get any mailing done. I was traveling on Wed and Thurs... Got up Friday morning and about the time the coffee was done we lost power. Called in the power outage and they told me an estimate on Sunday night.
Well crap, that effectively canceled the holiday at our house. I hadn't done any of the cleanup, decorating including getting the tree, or the shopping for fresh foods to cook with. Fortunately, we were able to set up plans to go over to the folks house instead, so Christmas was saved :)
We did get our power up on Saturday afternoon, but by then I was totally unwilling to start preparations for Monday afternoon. I may be pretty good sometimes, but I ain't that good.
So it ended up being a rather quiet and boring Christmas at Growbox hill.
Now I have a whole heap of natural decorations to string up on the trees outside, lol.
And we got some damage to the windows on the workshop porch that I need to figure out how to repair.
The world didn't end, but it was kind of funny because we lost power and who knew if the world hadn't ended, hehehehe.
But as this year comes to a close, I am not sorry to see it go. 2012 was a bad year in a lot of ways, but it was a good year too in some ways. I'm looking forward to 2013.
Do I have new years resolutions? Of course I do. Everybody does, even those folks that claim they don't. If you have made plans into the next year, you have made resolutions to do something.
I'm going to make the second attempt at the veggie rows, work on improving what I already have plotted out. The black plastic was ok for the first year run. I want to at least upgrade to some proper path borders if I can lay my hands on some super cheap or free carpet.
I'm going to make the second attempt at the luffa growing project. I have enough seeds this time to guarantee a stand of growth if I don't completely screw up.
I'm going to try a second attempt at the marigold border for the firepit.
Oh, and a whole pile of other stuff too. I want to see my friends and family more, get all sorts of things done with the house... an endless array, hehe.
I hope the Farmers Almanac is right and we get in enough winter and early spring precipitation to tilt us back off the drought map. We are still considered abnormally dry and moderate drought is only a county away. Things are looking pretty good according to the drought monitor- it has backed off a lot in the last couple months.
And so it was Christmas... I hope everyone had a good year. I hope everyone has a good year to come as well :)
Monday, December 10, 2012
Eeeep, it's December!
So we are partway into December already, all that winter holiday stuff is coming right the eff up!
To catch up, Thanksgiving was really great. I was able to deliver the cattails to my sister. And try out the sizing dummy of the quartz and rings project for her. And test out a dried veggie dip mix I whipped up.
We got in cookies from OMA in Germany. You rock Oma for making my holiday season brighter.
Got in some seeds and experimented. Got in a very very generous SASE of luffa seed and did a sprout test that came back of 90% of 10 seeds. If I am a good gardener, I will be able to proceed with my initial hops growing setup testing. I wanted to get that done last year, but then the luffas failed and I ended up planting in a gourd mix in the area instead. I didn't know really what would climb or not, so I didn't do the stringing of the area.
Tried out three kinds of dried hot peppers from a little local joint. Did 25 each of those, I didn't expect great sprouting, but hey, ya never know :) The Japanese pods had a 44% rate, so I think I will do another test. The guajillo had 1 seed barely pop. But hey, they all ground up well to make seasoning mix with anyway.
I've tried some projects, and some have failed, hehehe. Tried out birdseed ornaments- found out a lot, and also turned the first lot out to the critters. Perhaps my next batch will be better photo worthy other than what not to look like.
Ah well. I just tossed the whole mess outside on a container and let the critters go at it. At lest a couple squirrels seemed to enjoy the mix.
Lesson learned.. KISS, really. Packing the forms sucks, and all of them weren't done the same. The lovely round ones were made using a 1/2 cup measure and baked unmolded. Toothpicks did work great for the hanging hole. Baking at 250 for two hours then leaving them in the oven overnight seemed to work well. Lining the pan with paper is a really good idea. Use oil lightly for your molds. Use water lightly for your fingers to pack the seed.
Found out I could indeed string fresh cranberries and dehydrate them for a pretty garland for the holiday tree. Just takes forever and a day to dry them out while trying to keep them looking nice. 4 12 oz fresh bags gotten on sale yielded the 8 dried strands in the pic. Average length of each strand is about 4 feet. I tried a test bag. Strung them layed them out on a cookie sheet and into a 250 oven for the preliminary drying/cookdown. To darn hot. The skins did a lot of bursting and in general the strands look more like craisins than cranberries. I did up the rest of the strands on a couple cookie sheets at 200 for prelim, and that worked out much much better. Two strands coiled nicely per tray for the dehydrator. Then it ran at 95-125 for three days. Yeah, it took three frigging days to dry them slowly enough that they didn't loose too much of the cranberry look.
Made some music CD's. And a whole bunch of cookies, snickerdoodle, coconut, lemon, chocolate crinkle and snowball. I somehow managed to screw up spritz cookies. I don't know what I did wrong, and they aren't bad, but they just aren't right and very crumbly.
And hehehehehe... Been a long time since I made english muffin loaf and I never tried it in a regular loaf pan before. Wow, funny shit. I think I got the consistency of the dough right, it might have been a bit too loose. And I only used one pan, forgetting the important under a half pan rule. Then I decided to just go ahead with the snoballs instead of holding off and baking off the loaf before it started cresting over the loaf pan. And gee, also forgot to reset the racks and the top might be a tad too done. At least I was smart enough to put a cookie sheet under the loaf pan.
It took the mold perfectly and tastes pretty darn good :) Lesson learned: I always have made this recipe using a set of small loaf forms- while I was at school. Apparently this recipe is enough for 2 loaves, snort. I think I will try using the small form pans I do own- a pair of deep cone muffin pans.
Been listening to a lot of christmas music to help get in the mood. Found out there are some musicians out there I never even thought about that have made whole albums. Some of them not too bad, some of it is downright horrid. I got a couple stations I like though.
To catch up, Thanksgiving was really great. I was able to deliver the cattails to my sister. And try out the sizing dummy of the quartz and rings project for her. And test out a dried veggie dip mix I whipped up.
We got in cookies from OMA in Germany. You rock Oma for making my holiday season brighter.
Got in some seeds and experimented. Got in a very very generous SASE of luffa seed and did a sprout test that came back of 90% of 10 seeds. If I am a good gardener, I will be able to proceed with my initial hops growing setup testing. I wanted to get that done last year, but then the luffas failed and I ended up planting in a gourd mix in the area instead. I didn't know really what would climb or not, so I didn't do the stringing of the area.
Tried out three kinds of dried hot peppers from a little local joint. Did 25 each of those, I didn't expect great sprouting, but hey, ya never know :) The Japanese pods had a 44% rate, so I think I will do another test. The guajillo had 1 seed barely pop. But hey, they all ground up well to make seasoning mix with anyway.
I've tried some projects, and some have failed, hehehe. Tried out birdseed ornaments- found out a lot, and also turned the first lot out to the critters. Perhaps my next batch will be better photo worthy other than what not to look like.
Found out I could indeed string fresh cranberries and dehydrate them for a pretty garland for the holiday tree. Just takes forever and a day to dry them out while trying to keep them looking nice. 4 12 oz fresh bags gotten on sale yielded the 8 dried strands in the pic. Average length of each strand is about 4 feet. I tried a test bag. Strung them layed them out on a cookie sheet and into a 250 oven for the preliminary drying/cookdown. To darn hot. The skins did a lot of bursting and in general the strands look more like craisins than cranberries. I did up the rest of the strands on a couple cookie sheets at 200 for prelim, and that worked out much much better. Two strands coiled nicely per tray for the dehydrator. Then it ran at 95-125 for three days. Yeah, it took three frigging days to dry them slowly enough that they didn't loose too much of the cranberry look.
Made some music CD's. And a whole bunch of cookies, snickerdoodle, coconut, lemon, chocolate crinkle and snowball. I somehow managed to screw up spritz cookies. I don't know what I did wrong, and they aren't bad, but they just aren't right and very crumbly.
And hehehehehe... Been a long time since I made english muffin loaf and I never tried it in a regular loaf pan before. Wow, funny shit. I think I got the consistency of the dough right, it might have been a bit too loose. And I only used one pan, forgetting the important under a half pan rule. Then I decided to just go ahead with the snoballs instead of holding off and baking off the loaf before it started cresting over the loaf pan. And gee, also forgot to reset the racks and the top might be a tad too done. At least I was smart enough to put a cookie sheet under the loaf pan.
Been listening to a lot of christmas music to help get in the mood. Found out there are some musicians out there I never even thought about that have made whole albums. Some of them not too bad, some of it is downright horrid. I got a couple stations I like though.
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