|
|
"I never had any other desire so strong, and so like to
Covetousness, as that one which I have had always, that I might
be master at last of a small house and large garden, with very
moderate conveniences joined to them, and there dedicate the
remainder of my life to the Culture of them and study of
Nature." Although unique we each may be, yet many of our feelings have certainly been around throughout all the centuries. And it seems that springtime is a great one to bring out that definite desire to get down and get dirty. After all, have you ever known a child who could go by a dirt pile without getting involved with it in a very one-on-one way? So when non-gardening folks question the inordinate (to them) amount of time you spend working, thinking, dreaming, talking gardening, seed saving, and the like, you could reply you are simply letting the child in you be free; or you are getting personally involved in history. I have always had a problem explaining this particular passion of mine in the usual few minute conversation, so look for easy and simple replies that could be serviceable. The "real" answer could take columes, assuming I could get all the facets into words. Then again, it really is quite simple isn't it? I do it because I like to, and want to. Which has all the problems of any of the simple solutions and answers - it sounds too simple. The effect isn't nearly impressive enough. And so the volumes continue to be printed. Someday we may get to the point where we truly understand, that the "simple" (answer, solution, life) is inherently more intricate and encompassing than anything we invent. And then we will begin to understand Nature and Nature's way. And our gardens will be better for it. Meantime, we continue with the very basic and real world of gardening - weeding and planting, reacquatinting ourselves with the soil and insects in our individual gardening worlds. And wondering when will be the last frost this year. Early? Late? As normal (if there is such a thing)? For many years I kept track of the dates of last and first frosts, and their correlation to the time of the full moons, trying to come up with the "right" time to plant and set out those frost tender crops we insists on planting despite nature's whacks. After ten years my conclusion was that the full moon does come regularly, the frosts don't, and they have little to do with one another. So I just picked a date (about mid-June) and collected a great supply of old blankets. Then, as often happens, something I'd been reading for years finally stood out and caught my attention. How often have you read in the gardening books and literture of an "old wive's/farmer's tale" which says you should plant your whatevers when the leaves of the whitsit bush is the size of a marmot's nose (or some such)? I figured they were probably good advise but it seems I never had the whitsit bush they mentioned, or knew how large a marmot's nose was. And I lamented the lack of a grandfather or great aunt or "unique character" nearby who knew the old ways. It takes some of us longer than others. But it finally occurred to me to use the same tools they had used. Observation and common sense. I made notes of what was happening around me in Nature when it felt like the right time to plant - the early crops, the middling crops, the later ones. So now, instead of exact dates (May 5, Memorial weekend, June 15) my planting schedule is more general. The early crops go in when the lilac and wild cherry leaves are first out and the first Trout Lilys bloom; corn and carrots and coles areplanted when the Juneberries blossom; cucumber seed when the Lilacs bloom. The dates are general, First part of May, Last part of May. This year is later than last by a week or so acording to the calendar. But Nature's claendar is always right on. Unfortunately, my tender transplants still have to put up with being planted outside based on our schedule instead of nature's, since we're traveling often in June. But I'm making notes and paying attention. I'm certainly not going to get rid of my supply of blankets (I haven't forgotten the great Summer Solstice freeze of '92, and not likely to, we weren't home that week-end). And even Nature's plants are frozen out some years. But the "by the leaf and blossom" method has worked well for more people than the "by the calendar" probably has, and is a good skill to develop. Not only in our own established gardens, but in new ones if we move to a new area. I'm sure this isn't a "new" system to all of you, so let me know what your guidelines (guideleafs?) are. When do you plant? This is a knowledge we can share no matter if our frosts come a little earlier or a little later than other's. Solar Food Dryer Although you are probably up to your arm pits with seeds and weeds and dirt and plants (not to mention black flies, wood ticks and sweat) and not much in the mood to think about the future harvesting and preserving that is sure to come (well, kinda sure, we hope anyway). But you can always set this part aside and come back to it when the last bean is in undercover and the last tomato plant is warming its root toes in the dirt. Take a break, then read on to see what to do while waiting for the garden forest to mature. In our early days of homesteading and gardening I did the usual plant-it-all-and-can-everything-in-sight. Which was OK, if overly hectic. But eventually I got a little tired of canning - the heat, volumes of water, stacks of cookstove wood, staying up till the wee hours waiting for the last batch to come out of the canner. I stopped planting (and canning) things we didn't eat much, we depended more on the roote cellar, we ate more in season, and I dried a few things in our rack over the wood stove, mainly apples and herbs. I was still canning more than I wanted to hoever. Then I came across an article in "Home Power" magazine (#29, pg 63) - A Solar Food Dryer for Humid Climates, bay Larisa Walk and Bob Dahse of Minnesota. I was intrigued. But it took meeting and talking wtih them and other solar food drying affectionados at the Midwest Renewable Energy Fair in Wisconsin to get us going. It seemed just the thing for our lifestyle and food habits. Steve designed and built a dryer based on Larisa's plans, with some modifications to fit our materials and ideas, and I started drying. They were right, it worked, I was hooked. And I don't mind a bit that my canning job is down to a few items (tomatoes, pickles, jams, a little fruit sauce). The one negative was that instead of the beautiful rows and rows of full canning jars int he pantry like every good homesteader should have, we have far fewer jars and buckets and tins full of dried stuff. Hard ont he ego initially, but not on the stomach. Andboth my ego and I would much rather go for a walk than spend time in the kitchen any day. I'll let Larisa and Bob tell you about their design with excerpts from their flyer "A Solar Food Dryer That Works". [By the way, a book and video from Larisa and Bob are in the works]. "For years I tried about every solar dryer design imaginable. The only common factor in all those attempts was their very limited usefulness here in the humid upper midwest. None of them could reliably turn food into a non-moldy finished product, unlike the many successful electric models I had built for myself and friends. Some didn't work at all if not tracked periodically during the day. It was with this background that the 'idea light' came on in the head. "One day I needed to dry a bunch of greens and the current solar dryer was full (a couple of handfuls was all it could handle). I had an old window screen laying around and a corrugated metal roof built over our old trailerhouse. Using a ladder to get to the roof, I put the screen down first and put the food on it. I wanted to keep the sun off the food itself so I covered it with a pieceof black cloth. Then, to keep everything from blowing away or being bothered by flies, I covered it witht he storm window that was laying around with the screen. "Later that afternoon I thought I'd see how it was doing. The greens int he old dryer were still quite limp when I crawled up the ladder to take a look at the stuff on the roof. Much to my surprise, the roof-top greens were crispy dry! It looked like I had finally stumbled on something that worked. I tried several other foods on the roof before I was convinced enough of the design to build a unit at ground level for easier access. [Larisa's Basic Design] "I found through experimentaing that the primary ingredients for this idea were: 1) Corrugated, galvanized metal roofing, 2) Screen, 3) Black cloth, 4) Glazing, 5) Slope. The sun shines through the clear glazing unto the black cloth, heating up the air space under the glazing. The corrugated metal provides air spaces under the screen for the warm, moisture laden air to move. The air moves passively upward along the slope, carrying away the moisture from under the trays of food. The galvanized metal also reflects heat back onto the food. This combination really gets the job done. "Using these principles I built a 4 ft x 12 ft, waist high "shed" (I store extra firewood under this roof). The 4 ft width enagles me to reach easily from either side. The roof pitch is approx. 12-15 deg. The legs are 2"x2" treated wood and stick into the ground about 6-12". Next I build twelve 2'x2' screens made from 2"x2" cedar and 1/4" hardware cloth (this size screen is easy to handle - they were originally 2'x4' and I cut them in half). "I use fiberglass screen ont he trays to keep the food from contacting the galvanized hardware cloth and also over the top of the food to keep it from sticking to the black cloth. I cut the screen double the size of each tray so it can be folded over the food. Stainless steel screen would be best [see note later]. Having removable screen facilitates pouring food into containers and makes cleanup a snap, although it can be less both to permanently mount the screen on the frames. It is also nice to make the screens slightly smaller than the exterior of the frame. The lower inside edge of the frame wood can be cut away so that the screen can be recessed. This eliminates the possibiliity of the screen edges snagging clothes when you lean against the dryer. "For black cloth I've found polyester double knits resists fading better than natural fibers (at last, a worthwile use for this stuf). Be sure to hem the edges so you won't end up with fuzz or fibers in your food. "The glazing [on the old unit] is Kalwall (40 mil fiberglas reinforced polyester) and is the most expensive part of the system (it holds up better than glass in hail storms and weighs less). (A newer improvement uses corrugated glazing with a layer of aluminum stapled to the underside of the glazing framework. you could use used printer plates or sheet steel but aluminum flashing is easy to come by in 2' widths and can be cut with a scissors. The metal is painted with BBQ black paint on both sides - the top to absorb the sun's heat and the bottom to reradiate that heat onto the food. Temperature readings made this [this would be last year] spring indicate that this method heats comparably with the black cloth. Although I was originally worried about overheating - it appears inefficient enough to avoid cooking the food rather than drying it]. "The 2"x2" framework for the glazing is attached to the dryer with T-strap hinges on both the north and south sides. These were made into lose pin hinges so you can open the dryer from either side by pulling the pins and lifting the lid. A prop stick holds the lid open. "You could also make the slope of the unit adjustable so it would work better later into the fall when the sun is lower in the sky. "WHAT IT CAN DO: Even in Minnesota the sun can dry all of these foods easily; apples, green beans, peas, corn, cabbage, brocccoli, cauliflower, peppers, kale or any greens, herbs, melon, fruit leathers, strawberried & other berries, plums, beets, onions, mushrooms, squash, eggplant, tomatoes, asparagus, celery, bananas, etc. The dryer can also be used to crisp bean pods for threshing, small grains before storing, and to dry corn before shelling and grinding. When using the dryer this way, I do not use the black cloth since I do not want these items to get oo hot (I save seed from my beans and corn). "TECHNIQUES: When using a solar dryer, an accurate weather forecast to ensure proper timing is essential. Really wet foods (corn, melon, strawberried, etc) will take at least 2 good days of full sun. the first day is the most critical. The food needs to get dry enough to coast through the night before finishing off the next day. Sometimes food will not be finished until the 3rd day or longer, depending on the weather. If food is nearly dry, a rainy spell will only postpone the process but the food will not spoil. Greens and herbs will be done in one day. My definition of "dry" is crispy for all vegetables, though fruits can remain somewhat pliable. "Food needs to be cut in uniform pieces for best drying. For example, you'll need to dry celery stalks separately fromt he leaves. Placement in the dryer is important also since the warm, moist air rises. Foods entering their second day in the dryer should be below freshly cut up foods. Herbs can always go lower where it is not quite as hot. Foods dry faster if stirred once or twice, although this isn't absolutely necessary. Melons and other sticky foods should be peeled fromt he screens when partially dry and flipped before they become permanently bonded to the screen. "The only foods I steam blanch are sweet corn, peas, and green beans. Be sure to put away your dried goodies before the evening dew has remoistened them, but do allow the foods to cool off if you bring them in during the heat of the day. Store dried foods in airtight containers (a good use for all those extra canning jars you won't be needing) in a cook, dark place." Thanks to Larisa and Bob for sharing this with us. We made our unit a little different in that Steve built it arouind our already existing cold frame windows (by the time I'm ready for the dryer the cold frames are done in the garden). We have a preference for glass over plastic so this fits us well. Each set of windows are hinged in the middle. Our screens are made without the hardware cloth using only fiber glass screening stretched in a frame just as regular window screens are. They do sag some though and I have my sights set on stainless steel screens in the future. We also put our black cloth on a frame which keeps it up off the food and easy to handle. I have found that with our design and in our climate I have to prop the windows open a bit on clear sunny days. A few scraps of wood handle that easily and it's nice to have a closser fit on overcast days. Our unit sits on sawhorses so it can easily be stored under cover when not in use - important since we used wood we had - untreated poplar and pine. We already had a drying rack frame with five screens hung over our wood heating stove (which has given us good service for 16 years), so Steve built another rack over our wood cook stove. This one holds the screens from our solar dryer so on cloudy or rainy days we just bring them inside. When the solar drying season is over they become an indoor drying rack as by then we're running the wood stoves more. Larisa and Bob use their wood fired sauna for an emergency dryuing room. So if you haven't collected enough reasons for building a saune, here's another! Once you start drying you probably won't need any encouragement to experiment. A couple of successes I was especially happy with was cooked dried beans/peas (appropriately, cooked in a solar oven) dried. Also cooked grains such as rice. Homestead instant food! Great for camping, too. Cooked lentils dried make a particularly instant food, they are an interesting crunchy dry snack without being rehydrated. HOW TO ACTUALLY GET AROUND TO BUILDING YOUR DRYER: NSN members and seed savers Kathy and Jan had a great solution for this one. They organized a day-long dryer workshop to build 10 food dryers, each 4'x4'. Larisa reports "The day of the workshop was warm and sunny. Bob and I arrived arouind 8:30 and organized the eight adults plus kids into teams to make an assembly line. The buys that wanted to work with power tools cut the wood pieces. The rest of us cut the glazing and screen to size and painted and cut the aluminum plate. As the wood was cut, a couple of the older kids started assembling the frames with some adult help. All the cedar got a wax/oil finish*. By the end of the day, after an enjoyable potluck lunch break, we had built seven food dryers . . . "In the process of getting materials, Kathy came across a cheaper source of nicer stainless steel screen. Cambridge Wire Cloth Co., PO Box 399, Cambridge MD 21613, 1-800-638-9560. 10 mesh .023 SS screen. They have a $100 min order but a group can buy collectively and easily meet that amount." [Note: This is a large company selling mainly large wholesale orders. What is available depends on what their large customers have ordered and what is on hand. The type of stainless and the sizes vary widely as does the prices. But the day I called they had a 4/10 low carbon SS mesh of that size, 61" wide and you could get a 5 ft piece for $100. This is one of the more expensive types however, and the woman I talked with recommended .025 size since this is a less expensive, common grade and more available. Prices quoted don't include shipping but the pieces generally can be shipped UPS. They have a LOT of different sizes and grades so to ask for anything else you'll have to know what you're asking for. The lots are sold on a first come first serve basis. Thanks to Kathy and Larisa for this tip. I ahve my screen-savings-fund all set up.] "*Homemade sealant: melt one pound paraffin, remove from heat and stir in (vigorously) three quarts linseed oil and one cup gum spirits turpentine. When cool it looks like crystallized honey. Apply liberally with a brush.)" If you're going to be attending this summer's Midwest Renewable Energy Fair in Wisconsin be sure to take in Larisa's workshop "Energy Saving Food Preservation Tips". And let me know your YOUR solar dryer and drying adventures turn out. POTATOES U.P. Hedrick says of the Potato in his "A History of Horticulture in America to 1860": "Although Tomas Hariot is said to have taken the potato to England from Virginia in 1585, those cultivated by colonists did not come from the Indians of that colony. A colony of Scotch-Irish who settled in Londondery, NH in 1719 is said to have brought the first potatoes to New England. Another lot is said to have been introduced from Peru, probably a little later, under the name 'Bilboas' and 'Spanish potatoes'. They were grown most commonly in Penn., but were so pungent in taste and odor that they were scarcely edible. The sort brought to NH by the ScotchIrish were yellow fleshed, small, kidney shaped and better flavored than the Spanish potatoes, though much inferior to the sorts in cultivation today." It's hard to trace the route of this vegetable throughout North America as it seems to show up scatterlingly throughout the histories that I've read. In the U.P. it ranges from a reference in 1873 "On the shore of Lac Vieux Desert . . . in their gardens they raised squaw corn . . . potatoes . . . wild rice . . ." ("Landlooker in the U.P. of Michigan"), to ("The French at Mackinac 1715-1760") ". . . every man had a plot of land behind his house . . . grew corn, cabbage, lettuce, potatoes, parsnips, onions, buckwheat, squash." And from the same area Askins wrote in his diary of 10-18-1775 "About a week ago dug all my potatoes and pulled up all my turnips." Yet Will and Hyde state "Potatoes were first introduced among the Mandans about 1832 . . . and after 1860 the Omahas and some other tribes grew more potatoes than corn." ("Corn Among the Indians of the Upper Missouri"). Peter Pond mentions potatoes from Mackinac to Minnesota in 1775-1788 ("Five Fur Traders of the Northwest"), as does James Allen in 1832 ("Schoolcraft's Expedition to Lake Itasca"). But the simple spud wasn't popular with everyone. In a jaunt into Canada (around Quebec, Montreal) in 1750 Peter Kalm notes that "Few people took notice of potatoes . . . When the French here are asked wy they do not plant potatoes, they answer that they do not like them and they laugh at the English who are so fond of them." Yet in the New York area he says "Potatoes are planted by almost everyone" ("Peter Kalm's Travels in North America"). Today they are eaten by almost everyone, but planted by far fewer. For most gardeners, however, they are a staple in the garden. And we no douibt have access to far more varieties than those earlier gardeners in the midwest (through folks like Ronniger's Seed Potatoes in Idaho and the Seed Savers Exchange members). Of course, commercially we are in no better shape in this country than the folks in Europe at the time of the Irish Potato Famine. And it would not be a great surprise to have a similar disaster befall our potatoe crop here. There is no reason for it not to happen as the vast majority of potatoes planted are from but a few varieties. in our gardens we don't need to be so short sighted and a broad variety base is not only good insurance, it's a lot of fun. A tone time in the U.P. (as I assume elsewhere) the number of varieties grown and being tested by the State Experiemnt Stations was quite extensive. A 1903 report ists 22 promising varieties (only two of which still survive today). But by 1919 the damage had begun and only five varieties were being grown here (one of which is, as far as I know, extinct - White Rural, another just about extinct - Russet Rural). Today only a few varieties are generally grown. Another reason for growing a number of varieties is to keep your lines healthy. When saving your own seed potatoes for years you can run into a problem with "run out", with yields getting less and less. If it's a variety carried by a seed company you can simply buy new seed (tubers). But then you lose the years of adaptation you've bred into your potatoes by selecting to fit your conditions. And sometimes you are growing varieties not available commercially. Or if you have access to the facilities (not likely) you can grow sprouts under special conditions indoors. But the advise I've read from previous farmers to avoid run out of your crop is to keep varieties mixed in the field. It makes more work at harvest time to get the varieities separated again (and in planting) but it is how they prevented run out in years past. I follow their advise. In reading through old bulletins from the Chatham Experiment Station (int he U.P.) I came across some experiments they did with potatoes in 1903. They planted half the crop in the Fall (Nov. 1) using whole potatoes (they had found previously that cut potatoes didn't do well in the fall plants). The other half they planted May30/June 2 (Chatham is lcoated in a fairly cold part of the U.P.). They planted 2" and 5" deep (which they found no difference between). The Fall planted potatoes produced more merchantable tubers than the Spring planted. There was also a note that there was a better yield and earlier maturing with level cultivation versus hilling. Some years ago I tried a row of Fall planted potatoes but I had many that didn't come up. Those that did had a fine crop though. Something to try again. Although your potatoes are no doubt in the ground by now (getting my multiple varieties planted in one reason this newsletter is rather late!), something to consider for next year, fi you don't already do so, it setting your selected seed potatoes out in a light, warm (but not in the direct sun) area to sprout first, 4 - 6 weeks before you plant. If you don't have a spot to spread them out (or if your family objects to having to play hop scotch through the spuds in order to get to an important area of the bathroom) you might plan to construct a special sprouting rack with trays held far enough apart for ample circulation. If you cut your bubers you will be able to choose the best cut if the sprouts are already growing. And you can select the strongest, sprouting potatoes to plant, discarding those that have weak, spindly sprouts or none at all. It does take extra care in transportaing and planting, however, as you don't want to break the sprouts off. There are probably more ways of planting potatoes than with most crops, and as usual, what works for you is the way to go in your garden. The technique I've settled on for now is to dig a shallow hole with trowel or bulb planter 12" - 18" apart, cover with dirt, then mulch well once the plant is up. Some varieties grow down, some out, and some up, and I usually have a note in my garden plan to "next year mulch more!" to keep those upper growing ones covered. If I have compost I'll put some on each plant under the mulch. Having lots of mulch around the potatoes is especially nice for those too frequent early summer frosts. It's easy to pull some hay up over the plants to protect them. Although they will grow back if killed by frost it doesn't help the yield any. It's helpful to take notes on the healthiest plants and those least bothered by insect pests. This will help in choosing seed potatoes to save for planting next year, in addition to the other considerations such as yield, size of potatoes, color, taste, diversity, etc. When it comes time for harvest and storage I've tried both not washing and washing the potatoes, with no noticeable difference. I opt for washing by spreading all the tubers out by variety and hosing them down. Then them over, hose again. Or they are washed in a bucket of water. Then let dry well (both sides). It's easier to pick out the best looking tubers to save for seed next year if they are clean, espeically if you have a problem wtih scab (as I usually do). I leave them out in the the sun just long enough to dry, then pack them into baskets for storage in the root cellar. (I've also used cardboard boxes under the bed which worked well). Here's a recommendation I think I'll try with part of my
harvest this Fall: Another but of tongue-in-cheek advise for any of us unfortunate enough to have a very wet Fall, from the Schoolcraft County Pioneer 10-14-1882: "We had had some rain down this way lately, our farmers know just where their potatoes lay but have no boats or trolling hooks to gather them in with; if they are expert fishermen they may be able to catch a few by spearing them from the top of tall stumps." Let's hope we don't have to try this! And for more diversity and challenge, save potatoe seed this year to plant next, if you have varieties that produce seed balls. Treat them as you do tomato seed, harvesting in the Fall when well ripe. As the seed is very small a tea strainer works well when washing the seed after fermentation. Start indoors in the spring and transplant ouit when the weather is settle. I ahven't tried this yet (actually I did save seed one year but a mouse ate my seed while it was in a saucer drying) but Greg has had success coming up with his own varieties this way. The resulting tubers are unique and not like the parent(s). It takes some patience and perseverance, as the first year result if just a tiny tuber, which you plant the next year to get a few more small tubers to plant the next year. And you are as likely to come up with a poor potatoe as a good one. But it's a fun, and edible, gamble. And if you do come up with a potato worth saving and sharing it's your unique discovery, and you get to name it. [Note later: That fall I did successfully save potato seed, starting them inside the next spring and planting out 24 plants. I harvested a wide variety of sizes, shapes, and yields from those plants (my seed having fifteen different varieties to cross with). My tubers weren't small at all, but of the usual range of potato sizes, and the number per plant went from one to a dozen. I picked out six of the best hills to save tubers from to plant the next year (this one). It will be fun to see what they do now.] Copyright 1995 Susan J. Robishaw
Copyright © 1997 by Susan J. Robishaw | ||||||||
|
|
