July garden

In my preparations for Nerd Prom and surgery, I have been neglecting posting about the veggie garden, though I have not been neglecting the garden itself.

I'm mostly growing roma tomatoes this year, since last year I bought tons of them at the farmers market. And we ran out of the pasta sauce I made from them far too early. This variety seems to be quite susceptible to blossom end rot, but I think I've got it mostly managed now.

I've never grown cucumbers before. The one you can see there is about the size of my pinkie fingernail. It'll only get to be the size of quarter. Adorable!

I kept seeds from a mystery variety of winter squash that I got at the end of last year's farmers market. They're incredibly happy. If we can't find Kaylee one of these days, I'll be sure to check to make sure they haven't dragged her in.

Squash flowers at the end of the day.

Dill! I've made two quarts of refrigerator pickles with this dill and cucumbers from the farmers market. It reseeded itself from last year quite happily.

I had an issue with peppers this year. The ones I grew from seed all died. But I got some from Oakland that are doing very well. I like the two little baby ones still in their flowers at the top.

This is Ohio, so I grew soybeans. These are fancy-schmancy black soybeans, though. They're fuzzy-stemmed. I didn't know they'd be like that. Nifty.

Crossing my fingers that it will keep going so well!

Jessica's universal refrigerator pickle juice

This can be used to make refrigerator pickles of just about any sort: cucumbers, cauliflower (shown), green beans, peppers ... Just add a tablespoon of pickling spices of your choice to the bottom of the jar, pack in the veggies, and ...

Ingredients
(makes enough for one quart of pickles)

1.5 cups water
3/4 cups white vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons kosher or pickling salt

Combine ingredients in small saucepan. Cover and bring to a boil over high heat. Uncover, stir to dissolve sugar and salt and boil for two minutes. Pour over vegetables and pickling spice in canning jar.

Let cool, then close jar and store in refrigerator for at least one week before eating. Eat within two months, if you can manage to keep them that long. This recipe can be doubled or tripled or quadrupled. If you make too much, just keep it in the fridge until you want to make more pickles.

You can vary the the type of vinegar, as long as it's at least 5% acidity. You can up the amount of sugar if you like sweeter pickles. Vary the pickling spices*, either by buying a commercial blend or making your own (both Penzey's and McCormick's are both good).

For dill pickles, put one tablespoon of pickling spice and one dill flowerhead (or one teaspoon dill seed) to a quart jar, then pack jar with either whole canning cucumbers or cucumber slices. Pour pickle juice in and then try to wait a week before eating!

* for a very simple version, try...

5 peppercorns
4 allspice berries
1 tsp whole yellow mustard seeds
1/4 cinnamon stick
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper

for dill pickles, add a dill flowerhead or one teaspoon dill seed

Detente

The dogs and chickens have come to a bit of an understanding. Cordy still likes to take a run st them every once in a while, just to make them flutter around, but mostly, the dogs think this is the best TV show ever.

It's hard to see, but Noodle is pecking at an apple that's in a little cage attached to the door of the run. They're about four inches from each other. Cordy spent most of the afternoon like that, even without chickens providing entertainment.

Chickens love yogurt

(click on the video to play)

Urban chickens in Columbus, Ohio

We have finally gotten our chickens!

I mentioned back in September that we were looking into getting chickens, and seven months later, we've finally gotten them.

Here's how we got chickens within the city limits of Columbus, Ohio:

Read up on chickens, coops, and mention to the neighbors that you're thinking of getting chickens. Ours were fine with us getting them, which came in handy later. Also read the city health code, section 221.05.

Build a coop. Ours is better insulated than our house and painted a bright, bright green. It also has a run that is just about as predator-proof as we can make it (we have coyotes, raccoons, and hawks, as well as dogs). It took Jeff a long time to build and it's not perfect, but it's the Waldorf Astoria to chickens!

Next, call (614-645-6748) or email Dr. Messer at the City of Columbus Health Department. You will need to schedule an appointment to have your coop inspected and your house's environment evaluated. Be persistent if you don't get an answer right away. Dr. Messer only has one person to help him with all of the veterinary health-related issues for the entire city. It may take him a while, but he will answer you.

Our house is really close to our neighbors so that isn't necessarily a negative for you during the inspection. It did help that we have a fence. The inspector took pictures of the coop and our yard. I also had to answer questions to show that I knew about chickens and how to care for them.

Next, the letters went out to our neighbors: two to the south, one to the north, and one to the west across the alley. One neighbor we hadn't talked to had some concerns but was reassured when he heard we were only getting a few chickens and the coop would be much closer to our house than his.

Then we got our conditional permit. Yay!

That's when we got chickens. Rather than get chicks from a hatchery, which was an option, we decided to get young laying hens instead. We don't have space to raise chicks inside for the first month or two, so the hens were a better option for us.

I found our chickens through the BackYard Chickens Forum. We originally wanted Buckeyes, but no hens were available. Instead, we got an easter-egger, and three mixed breeds. Their names are Nugget, Noodle, Fricassee, and Dumpling.

Then I had to take them to the vet's for an inspection. It can be hard to find a vet that sees chickens, but our regular vet at Animal Care Unlimited sees them. I fashioned a carrier for them out of a Rubbermaid container, some chicken wire, and bungie cords.

They passed their inspection and I got their health certificates.

I also had to write up a care plan and a waste management plan. Be specific. I divided mine into daily, weekly, and monthly tasks.

The next step, which I still have yet to do, is to send the health certificates, the care plan, and the waste plan back to Dr. Messer.

What happens after that, I don't know. I'll update this post when I do!

Garden planning time!

It's late February, and that means it's time to get out the seed starting supplies and believe that one day, it will be warm again.

My garden planning started in December, but I didn't make my seed order until January. I order most of my seeds from Territorial Seed, and last year they had sold out of a few things before I ordered, and I didn't want that to happen again this year.

For this year, I decided to focus our planting on things that we eat a lot of and/or I canned a lot of last year. Yeah, that sounds obvious, but it's kind of fun to plant something new. Luckily, my brother Chris and his family got me some yacon to plant, so that will be my fun new thing this year. While I couldn't justify it, I'm glad they provided me with an excuse! :)

We'll be planting:

• cilantro
• sunflowers
• radishes
• nasturtium
• cucumbers
• kale
• lettuce
• Swiss chard
• beets
• peppers
• black soybeans
• paste-type tomatoes
• basil
• scarlet runner beans
• onions
• long pumpkin

(I didn't link everything because it's a long list... :)

I also saved some seeds from a winter squash that I got at the market last year. I really liked it, but by the time we ate it, I couldn't remember what it was. We'll see how it goes!

We also have walking onions and strawberries in the garden from last year. I'm not holding out too much hope for the strawberries, but we'll see. If they don't produce, I'll rip them out and plant something else there.

I'm also planning on doing a few experiments with the way I plant. I've been interested in those upside-down tomato planters, but I've heard bad things about the manufactured plastic ones (the roots and stem rot). However, I saw somewhere online where someone made one out of a coir-fiber lined hanging planter. I picked up a couple of those, and I'll plant a couple slicing tomatoes in those to see how it works (I'll be trading tomato seedlings with a co-worker to get those).

Since we cut down the tree in the backyard last fall, we'll actually be able to plant in the backyard, too! This will be totally new for us, so we're going to just have to see how that goes. We've got a long, empty planting bed that we're planning to use for sunflowers, with the mystery winter squash underneath.

All in all, I'm excited about what'll happen! Now I can't wait until it warms up so I can get to work!

"Let's pretend these are healthy" cookies

(Before I forget how I made these very yummy cookies...)

1 cup white flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/4 cup butter (1/2 stick)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
3 Tbsp honey
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup additions, such as dried cherries, dried coconut, walnuts, hulled sunflower seeds, and/or chocolate chips. I like a bit of all of them.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small bowl, blend together flours, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and cardamom.

With an electric mixer, blend together butter and sugar in a large bowl.

Add egg, honey, and vanilla. Blend thoroughly with the hand mixer.

Using a spoon, stir in the flour mixture. When it's almost all mixed together, add the additions.

With clean hands, roll dough into balls the size of a golfball or a little smaller. Place one to two inches apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Remove to a rack to cool.

Try to let them cool a bit before you eat them.