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Post by 12540dumont on Oct 31, 2013 16:14:19 GMT -5
Made kefir no knead bread today. It was so delicious, proper sourdough flavour. Unfortunately I forgot to flour the pan so it stuck and the bottom of the loaf got left in the pan. Okay, I want that recipe!
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Post by 12540dumont on Oct 31, 2013 16:05:25 GMT -5
I have not grown Fortex. I'm a fan of French Filet Beans for early summer and Roma Beans for late summer. I regularly try new beans and use these two as my base. I have not grown Blue Lake in years. My first French Filet, St. Genevieve, blew them right out of the water. I think that Kentucky Wonder and the creasy and some of the Italian Beans that I grow are all very similar. My husband and I used to regularly argue Blue Lake or KW...after all there's only so much room. Now it's Super Marconi or Marvel of Venice? growitalian.com has a 4 bean sampler that gives you S.Anna, Super Marconi and Marvel of Venice, plus Trionfo Violetto. (Note: the Violetto is not as productive in my garden as the Santa Anna.) I suspect having tried Violetto and Grandma Roberts Purple Pole that these "may" be the same bean. Both yummy, both easier to find on the pole that a green bean on a green vine! Neither are as productive as the Gt. Genevieve (bush) or the Santa Anna Pole. I haven't grown Rattlesnake, which I'll blame on some beaniac, who still has to plant Blue Marbut, Tobacco Worm Pole, Mangere Pole, Old Timey, White and Green Pole, Blue Tip and Griggs Black. So many beans...so little time. I did Berner Butter, Strangenbohne Ilanz and Buerre De Roquencourt...all of which were wonderful beans. (Solstice Seed). I have over 90 beans now, that does not include Runners, Vignas, Lunatus, Tepary, Cicers, Lupini, Lentils or Favas! The beans have taken on a life of their own. Joseph, sent me his Coat of Many Color's Beans...aren't they beautiful? How could I resist. And Cortona's Vignas...it's a slippery slope. picasaweb.google.com/107334638896480841204/JosephCortonaSBeans
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Post by 12540dumont on Oct 30, 2013 14:07:29 GMT -5
In Dar's Southern French Bean Patch, I grew Turkey Craw, Emerite, and Striped Hull Crease Cutshort. These were all good beans. The Emerite had lovely purple flowers and compared most to my standard - the Santa Anna. Yes the other's had strings. The Turkey Craw is a beautiful dry bean. The Creasy was very early compared to the other 2. I had to beat Beth back from picking these as they were for a seed increase. Not for stuffing your own craw with! link Dar's Southern French Beans
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Post by 12540dumont on Oct 30, 2013 13:34:40 GMT -5
I have self seeding sorghum on my farm. It comes out of the chicken feed. It's brown, and the wee birdies leave it alone. I cut the stalks and toss them to the chickens and they eat them. Whatever they leave behind sprouts again next year. I grew an extremely long season white one for Tater Mater and Rob. I barely got it out of the field. This one was extremely human edible. Both of these come up as volunteers on my farm. link to sorghumNow, I have spotted one that is a cross between them. It's picture #3. You can see the brown, the white and on the left a midrange color that I have never had before. It's October here and the nights have been 45 and the days 65 degrees F. The birds have been too busy eating the sunflowers to bother with these, but I expect Steev's birds to be here any day now, the advance guard has already been here working the tomato patch and the seeds from the Korean Mint. I'm not sure about how short a season these are, as they are volunteers and showed up in the corn patch when the soil was warm, somewhere in June or July. Templeton, can I send you seed? Or is this another forbidden item? Hey Joseph, in this album is also the photo of the Luffa. This did nothing all season and suddenly in September it took off. It's huge. Squash bugs do not eat it.
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Post by 12540dumont on Oct 30, 2013 13:12:53 GMT -5
link Link to wheat photos Blue, you might want to send this photo to one of the college ag guys. Looks like it could be a nematode problem. But I'm no wheat expert. I'm only working with Farro.
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Post by 12540dumont on Oct 30, 2013 12:26:52 GMT -5
Steev, I am happy to report that we had 2 count them 2 light dusting of drizzle. Which is more than we have had since last October, with the exception of the stupid rain we got in June.
It's the time of year to break shovels. Leo complied by breaking my fork AGAIN! This time of year, the garden is 1/2 inch of dust and then solid. As the clay particles dry out, my garden turns to adobe on the paths. The part that has been composted is still dry dry dry.
Steev, I will send you a sucking up gift.
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Post by 12540dumont on Oct 30, 2013 12:22:20 GMT -5
Hurray! Hurray! Welcome baaak
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Post by 12540dumont on Oct 30, 2013 12:19:58 GMT -5
And here's something else:
What follows is the Local Harvest Newsletter:
After the shenanigans of the last month it feels almost in poor taste to bring up yet another example of the folly in Washington. I would happily write about something more pleasant if there wasn't so much potential for damage here. The Food and Drug Administration has proposed another set of regulations that, if implemented as written, will negatively affect many LocalHarvest farmers and could very well put some of them out of business. (Careful readers will recall a similar theme in last month's LH newsletter concerning outdoor access for chickens; believe it or not, this is a separate issue.)
These proposed regulations fall under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), the first overhaul to food safety rules in 75 years. For several years before its 2010 passage, farm and food activists worked hard to make sure that the law would address the known threats to food safety from industrialized agriculture, and differentiate between those activities and ones that are non-threatening. Thanks to their hard work, Congress passed an amendment exempting small-scale farmers, thus protecting them from overly burdensome regulations that shouldn't apply to them. But that didn't entirely work.
Sometimes 'fair' means that the same rules apply to everyone, but sometimes what is fair is to ask the people who engage in the riskiest activities to meet a higher standard than others. In the food system, the riskiest activities are those with a documented history of contamination leading to human illness. In the U.S., those products are bagged salads, sprouts, and much of what is grown downstream from confined animal feedlot operations (CAFOs — aka feedlots). Bagged salads are risky because when the salad leaves are cut they become vulnerable to pathogens; putting these vulnerable greens in a sealed container and removing the oxygen creates an excellent environment for bacterial growth over time. Sprouts are risky because of a history of contaminated seeds and the lack of sufficient post-harvest safety checks. Irrigation water tainted by runoff from CAFOs may contaminate produce. Instead of focusing the regulations on these few problem areas, though, the FDA produced a set of rules strict enough to keep the high-risk products safe and applied it to all produce. According to The Cornucopia Institute, over 90% of the farmers to whom the regulations will apply do not produce these high-risk foods. Requiring them to abide by the same strict rules just isn't fair.
Nor is it smart. Despite being so expensive to implement that the FDA itself predicts the new rules will put some small- and medium-scale produce farmers out of business, asking them to follow these rules is unlikely to make the food system any safer at all because these farmers are not the bad actors. Society will lose an unknowable number of good farmers for nothing, and good food will become harder to find. We think the government has a role in keeping the food system safe, but rules that put good farmers out of business and leave gaping holes in known problem areas is not wise governance.
Several organizations have developed excellent materials through which you can learn more about these proposed regulations and their impact. One good source is The Cornucopia Institute. If you really want to dig in, read their whitepaper on the food safety rules. Another good source is the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition. They offer step by step instructions on how to submit a public comment and what to say. Finally, the Farm and Ranch Freedom Alliance offers an in-depth analysis, sample comments, and a downloadable PDF flyer that can be printed and distributed at farmers markets.
I hope that many of you will help protect LocalHarvest's produce farmers by contacting the FDA before the November 15 deadline. Let them know that you want the FDA to create rules that don't unfairly burden the small- and mid-scale farmers from whom you like to get your food. Good food — and good farmers — are worth protecting.
Until next time, take good care and eat well. Erin
Erin Barnett Director LocalHarvest
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Post by 12540dumont on Oct 28, 2013 11:35:27 GMT -5
Minnie, love the squash.
I plant "short day" onions here in the fall for early spring. Of course it doesn't snow here, so I dunno about the high tunnel. If the April temps are hot...these go straight to bolt, so I have to watch them carefully. I plant from seed.
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Post by 12540dumont on Oct 28, 2013 11:18:55 GMT -5
I grew Creasy Cut short and got them here: virtual.clemson.edu/groups/seed/heirloom.htm$2.00 a pack. They have both veges and heirloom veges. I did not use them fresh, but used them to make leather britches. They were not isolated, so they've crossed like mad. Don't forget your poles! These are TALL beans. The beans themselves looked like chicklets. Unlike SSE, Clemson will let you order more than one package. However, be warned...not a site for the beaniacs....don't even look. Good luck with your project.
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Post by 12540dumont on Oct 25, 2013 16:42:35 GMT -5
I think that every one should have to give up a letter for a week in solidarity for Steev. I'm volunteering to give up "Z" for the week.
And when I get *ebras in the *ucchini and they are being *ealots, you will know that *ack's driving the *amboni to *aire to pick up an order of *ablagoni and it will be difficult to become a *illionare without a *ed, meanwhile, Leo is *onked from playing *ithers with *ombies. I'm going to go eat some *wiebacks and catch up on my ***'s
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Post by 12540dumont on Oct 25, 2013 16:26:28 GMT -5
You have to watch tomatoes, they are famous for multiplying....
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Post by 12540dumont on Oct 22, 2013 22:26:54 GMT -5
I actually like to fish more than Leo does. Last year, in some idiocy I left the rods leaning against the barn on Friday night. Sometime over the weekend, they went fishing by themselves and they never came back. But they left the skeeters. As a result, I didn't get a license this year. All I have left is a folding backpacking rod. Which is sort of redundant, as when we went backpacking, Leo just waded into the water and threw fish at me. Got to love Canada and those beautiful Dolly Varden Trout!
Leo says to tell you I'm also useful for ticks. I'm impatient and start heading down the trail while Leo is gathering his "stuff". The result is that my socks are full of ticks and Leo never has a one.
I've mostly been bass fishing here. Never at night because of course they close everything at Sundown. Bass fishing is a lot like farming...they like to leave you in the weeds.
That's the absolute worst thing about living in California in the modern age, there is no place to escape the modern age.
As a child, in Minnesota, lakes never close.
In California as a kiddo, I spent many a night with my uncle floating in a boat, sleeping in the back of the pick-up and big eyed at the campfire. Fishing... there's far too many people anymore to enjoy fishing properly.
My uncle loved to pull an all nighter at the pier in Santa Cruz. Those were the days my friend. Crabs, perch, sand dabs... we had loads of fun and drifted to sleep on the waves.
It's probably a felony to be in a boat after sunset in Santa Cruz now. In those days it was a "free port".
I might have a future as skeeter bait, I wonder if I could make it pay better than farming?
Happy tomatoes.
By the way, the only time I've seen a fish not too lazy to jump out of the river was on the "Smith". The salmon leap like jitterbugs on a dance floor. Had it not been for some stout fisherman, I would have drowned. I got so excited, I fell down with waders. A lovely old fart grabbed me by the bra and fished me out.
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Post by 12540dumont on Oct 22, 2013 16:54:46 GMT -5
Dar, are you growing this? I love anything that deters a mosquito. Leo says I deter mosquitoes. He just takes me with him and never gets a bite.
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Post by 12540dumont on Oct 22, 2013 16:51:40 GMT -5
Drahkk,
Been there, I haven't tried the pill yet. Some days soooo many things go wrong that it's hard not to feel anxious or depressed.
So here's Holly's list of coping techniques.
1. Try to stay in today, not yesterday and not tomorrow. 2. This is a good time not to hang with folks who are negative. 3. Eat well. 4. Exercise...even if it's jumping to conclusions and running off at the mouth. (In other words, wear your self out), so that you can 5. Get 8 hours of sleep.
Changing jobs or even thinking about changing jobs is stressful. So, cut yourself some slack.
Know that there's lots of folks here who are rooting for you, even if some of us are a few letters short of a full alphabet
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