Gone Fishin'

After several months of putting it off and then waiting for our cabbages to be ready for harvest, last week we harvested some of our tilapia. What has cabbage got to do with when to harvest tilapia? Fish tacos! We wanted to have our own cabbage to go along with our own fish in those tacos. It was worth the wait! And we harvested enough fish to do it again in the near future.
 

The seven fish we took were from 12 to 15 inches long. We didn't weigh them--our apologies to the anglers out there. Suffice it to say, though, that these were all record setters and breakers. In this bunch were the longest, heaviest, shortest, lightest, ugliest, prettiest, and tastiest fish we've ever taken out of our fish farm, because one of them was also the first fish to be harvested from our fish farm.

We're finding that raising fish in a "barrel" doesn't require as much effort as we imagined.

We use an aquaponic system to raise our fish--that's a combination of aquaculture and hydroponics, making a symbiotic (mutually beneficial) environment. In other words, the fish wastes supply nutrients to plants, and plants by using the waste, clean up the water that the fish live in.

The fish water is pumped to the plant beds filled with gravel (or other growing media) where it feeds our plants (greens, cucumbers, tomatoes, herbs, etc.) and then filters through the gravel and drains back into fish tank.

Thanks to politicians and bureaucrats, water in California is in short supply. This system saves water--so far, due to transpiration and evaporation, we have had to add only 20 to 25 gallons of water per week to our 500 gallon system. That is much less than we would have to use in a soil garden to keep the same number of plants watered.

The only other regular input to the system is fish food, and some of that we grow ourselves--actually the fish grow it. We occasionally add chelated iron and liquid seaweed fertilizer.

Right now in our tanks, we have about 80 fish, ranging in size from two to ten inches. Depending on the weather, we should be able to harvest about sixty of these in the next eight months. In other words, we’ll have fish dinners about twice a month over that time. There are also two four-by-four foot growing beds for the plants. From these beds we have harvested celery, peppers, herbs, strawberries (there are a couple of nice-sized berries that will be ripe in a week or so), chard, scallions, tomatoes, and kale to name some of our favorites.

Once again, we have to say, that if we can do this, so can you. We re-purposed three 275-gallon IBC totes to make our tanks. The whole system of three tanks runs on one pump, so set up cost was pretty low, about 700 dollars, which includes the fish. Our input is fairly low also: a little water, some fish food, some fertilizer now and then (more at the beginning, than on-going). As a result, we have a perpetual supply of fish and lots of fresh veggies, to boot, in an area on our patio that measures four by twelve feet. It is container gardening on steroids.

Our favorite book on the subject (one we wish we could have used when we got started) is Sylvia Bernstein’s Aquaponic Gardening: A Step-By-Step Guide to Raising Vegetables and Fish Together, which you can find, along with lots of information and even classes, on her website: Aquaponic Source.

You can also read reviews and purchase the book on Amazon

Making Sauerkraut

We like sauerkraut, but we don't care for the vinegary, mushy, stringy kind found in the market in cans or jars. Store-bought, canned sauerkraut has been pasteurized and therefore, the good bacteria (probiotic) and enzymes have been destroyed as has the vitamin C, and other goodies.

We make our own for the better nutrition, but mostly because we like it. It is a little bit sour, and the cabbage is still crisp and tastes like cabbage. If you like sauerkraut at all, or cabbage, once you see how easy it is to make, you'll want to try making some yourself. Once you taste this sauerkraut, you'll want to make some more.

We harvested some cabbage this week, so we made a big batch of sauerkraut in a crock with an air-tight water seal (Harsch Gärtopf Fermenting Crock), but we also make small batches in quart jars when we can find good, organic cabbage (on sale) in the market. Non-organic cabbage that has been sprayed to kill insects or weeds may be slow to ferment or not ferment at all. We use either green or red cabbage or a combination of the two. This week it's the white cabbage. The red will be coming out of the garden in a week or so.

All you need to make your own small batch is a head of cabbage, some sea salt, a quart jar with a tight fitting lid, a sturdy bowl, and something with which to pound the cabbage, like a wooden meat tenderizing mallet.

Here's a simple recipe from Nourishing Traditions (page 92):

Sauerkraut

Makes 1 quart

1 medium cabbage, cored and shredded
1 tablespoon caraway seeds
1 tablespoon sea salt
4 tablespoons whey (if not available, use an additional 1 tablespoon salt)

In a bowl, mix cabbage with caraway seeds, sea salt and whey. Pound with a wooden pounder or a meat hammer for about 10 minutes to release juices. Place in a quart-sized, wide-mouth mason jar and press down firmly with a pounder or meat hammer until juices come to the top of the cabbage. The top of the cabbage should be at least 1 inch below the top of the jar. Cover tightly and keep at room temperature for about 3 days before transferring to cold storage. The sauerkraut may be eaten immediately, but improves with age.

Notes: We don't always add the caraway seeds. You can easily make your own whey and in the process, sour cream, or cream cheese. See Making Whey.

Here is an excerpt from a great little book on making sauerkraut and other lacto-fermented veggies we recommend:

"Attention was focused on the nutritional importance of sauerkraut when, in the 18th century, sailors often suffered from scurvy, a vitamin C deficiency. Captain Cook sailed around the world, carrying barrels of sauerkraut, not losing a single man to scurvy during his three-year voyage"

From Making Sauerkraut and Pickled Vegetables at Home: Creative Recipes for Lactic Fermented Food to Improve Your Health (Natural Health Guide), pg. 9.

Remember:  Unlike some others on the Internet, we will never, ever, ever recommend a book, product, practice, or process that we ourselves have not purchased or used consistently and with good, consistent results.

Do You Want to Be a “Master Composter” ?

From the San Diego Union-Tribune:

San Diegans could reduce trash by up to a third by composting yard trimmings, leaves and fruit and vegetable matter, according to the Encinitas-based Solana Center, which is offering workshops.

The center has teamed up with the cities of Carlsbad, Encinitas and San Diego to teach composting techniques at community centers and schools, and to offer discounted compost bins for participants.

The workshops explore backyard composting and vermicomposting, which uses worms to break down food and yard waste. 

[...]

The center offers discounted compost bins for $40. 

It also offers a five-week “master composter” class from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturdays from Feb. 23 to March 16 at the Water Conservation Garden, 12122 Cuyamaca College Drive West, El Cajon. Participants in the class, which covers in-depth training in composting techniques, are asked to complete 30 hours of community service....

Read more at http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/jan/22/tp-learn-composting-through-workshops/

Thank you to Bernie for the info!

Starting From Seeds

It’s time to plan our Spring garden. For some gardeners, planning is about all that can be done until the weather warms up. For us, the last frost is expected in mid March or early April. My grandfather, whose real-sized farm was only a few miles from our mini-farm, used to plant corn every two weeks or so starting in the middle of March so that he could harvest corn for celebrations on the 4th of July and on thru the summer. He planted Golden Bantam (as do we) which is ready to harvest about 80 days after planting.

The first decision to make in garden planning is what to grow. All plants are easy to grow if you know how. Our advice is that you grow only what you plan to eat. If you don't eat beets, don't grow them--at least at first (beets are very good for you, by the way). Start with a few things that you consistently buy at the produce market. Tomatoes are the most popular home-grown vegetable, but if you don't eat tomatoes don't grow them. (A tomato is actually a fruit, but defined by the government for tax purposes as a vegetable; see Nix v. Hedden)

Knowing how long your plants need to mature will help you know when to start them in the garden. Seed packets and catalogs usually give the number of days to harvest from the time you transplant the seedling into the garden. So you work backwards from the time you want to harvest your crops, keeping in mind the frost-free date. 

To raise transplants from seed--like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, etc.--find out how long the seed needs to germinate (also found on the seed packet or in the catalog) along with the number of days or weeks required for the seedling to be ready to transplant (usually four to six weeks). Add these together and using a calendar, work backwards from your frost-free date. 

Organic Gardening Magazine has a chart to help with your calculations here.

Here is our schedule for starting seeds indoors. Our target date for setting out plants is the first week in April (the last expected frost). We'll start planting seeds for:

• Peppers and Eggplant -- 8 to 12 weeks before the last frost. That would be now.
• Lettuce -- 8 to 12 weeks before the last frost. That would be now. Lettuces can be transplanted into the garden a month or so before the last frost.
• Cole crops (Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cabbage) -- 6 to 8 weeks before the last frost. That would be the first part of February. These can be transplanted into the garden two weeks or so before the last frost.
• Tomatoes -- 4 to 6 weeks before the last frost. That would be mid February.
• Cucumbers and Melons -- 2 to 4 weeks before the last frost. That would be the first part of March. These are transplanted out two weeks or more after the last frost. 

We like to grow our plants from seed for at least two reasons. First, we can more easily get seeds for the varieties we want to grow (Pennsylvania Dutch Crookneck Squash, for example). Second, we choose open pollinated and heirloom varieties (not usually available from the nurseries as transplants) so that we can save seeds from year to year. 

However, if you are new to gardening, you may want to wait until the weather warms up and buy plants from the nurseries or garden shops. Nurseries tend to stock only tried-and-true varieties. These will be ready to set out in the garden, are disease resistant, suited to your area, and in most cases will not appear on store shelves until it is time to plant them, give or take a couple of weeks, depending on the weather (frost). If you choose to start seeds, we suggest you start with varieties that germinate easily: basil, broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, cauliflower, chives, leeks, lettuce, onions, peppers, and tomatoes. 

Our favorite online seed catalogs:

Seed Savers Exchange http://www.seedsavers.org/

Territorial Seed Company http://www.territorialseed.com/

Both of these offer printed catalogs available upon request. 

Territorial Seed Co. has pretty good online "Growing Guides" for each variety of veggie. Although just about every online or print seed catalog offers information on how to grow various varieties, some have more detailed information than others. Park Seeds (http://parkseed.com/vegetables/c/vegetables/) has on most of their detail pages a "Growing Information" tab that offers planting and growing instructions, tips, special considerations, potential pests and solutions, and so on for each variety.

Our favorite book on starting plants from seed is The New Seed Starter's Handbook by Nancy Bubel. It's main sections include: Starting Seeds Indoors, Moving Plants Outdoors, Special Techniques and Situations, Saving Seeds and Making Further Plans, and an Encyclopedia of Plants to Grow from Seed (the info you need to grow each variety of garden plant). 

Starting Seeds Indoors

1. Gather your materials. Get your seed flats, milk cartons cut in half down the middle, small pots, or what ever it is you're going to plant your seeds in. You'll also need some potting soil or seed starter soil mix (recommended over potting soil), or make your own mix with equal parts sharp sand, peat moss, and perlite or vermiculite.
2. Prepare your work space. Put down some newspaper or other suitable cover on your work surface. You're going to spill some potting soil.
3. Review seed packets and make labels for your plantings. Popsicle sticks, strips cut from plastic milk jugs, ready made labels from the garden store, or simply a label taped on the side of the flat will do. Oh, and don't forget your seeds. If you're new to starting seeds and identifying seedlings, labels are must. If you have lots of garden experience, you'll know that a super-hot pepper plant looks the same as a mild-hot pepper plant. It is very easy to confuse plantings in similar looking flats or pots. Labels are a must.
4. Prepare the medium. Use a watering can or a spray bottle to moisten the potting soil or seed starting mix. It should be damp to the touch but not soggy. If you start with moist soil, you will not have to water your seeds once you after you plant them. There is enough moisture in the soil to sprout the seeds. If you are planting very fine seeds, even the finest mist can dislodge your seeds and cause them all to clump together in the corners and along the edges, making separating the seedlings for replanting difficult if not impossible.



Containers to use for starting seeds indoors. Some ready-
made, some re-purposed.

5. Prepare the containers.  Remember this planting is only temporary. As soon as your seedlings have their second set of leaves, you can move them to individual pots or packs (although you could start with these keeping in mind that they will use more starting mix). Fill your container with moistened starter mix and press it down gently. Top it off and press again so that the mix is within a half inch of the top.  Airflow, and in some cases light, is important to seed germination. A planting surface too far below the rim of the container can interfere with these.
6. Plant the seeds. If you're using a small container (like the bottom two inches of a plastic milk jug), you can scatter the seeds over the entire surface of the planting medium. If you're using a nursery flat, you can place the seeds on the surface in rows, spacing the seeds according to size (tiny seeds at least an eighth of an inch apart, medium seeds a half inch, and large seeds an inch). Remember that you are going to be transplanting the seedlings later. Separating the roots of seedlings planted too close together can be difficult if not impossible without damaging the plant. If you're using a pack with cells, put a couple of seeds in each cell. The extras can be thinned later by snipping them off with small scissors.
7. Cover the seeds. Except for the very finest seeds or those few varieties that need light to germinate (the seed packet or catalog will tell) which can simply be pressed into the medium, the seeds will need to be covered with more starting medium. A general rule of thumb is to cover the seed to a depth 3 to 4 times its size. For example, a seed that is one-eighth inch in size would be covered with three-eighths to one-half inches of cover. We tend to stay toward the shallower depth when starting seeds indoors. This cover layer of mix or vermiculite does not need to be wet. It will absorb water from the moist layer below. You will not have to water your seeds until after they sprout. There will be plenty of moisture available for them.
8. Cover the container. If you're using ready-made seed starting trays, put the covers on and your seeds are ready to go. If you're using re-purposed containers, you can place a piece of damp newspaper or burlap over the surface of your container. Or (our favorite), you can slip the whole container into a plastic bag, or use a plastic sheet (trash bag), tucking the edges under your container. You could possibly use aluminum foil, but we have never tried this. Clear plastic allows you to see what is happening without letting out the moisture around your seeds.
9. Put the container in a warm place. Your seeds have moisture and they will need warmth to germinate. Put the covered container in a warm place, but keep it out of the sun! You don't want to steam your seeds or new seedlings. The top of the fridge might be a good place. Near the stove in the kitchen. A shelf over the dryer in the laundry room or a shelf near the water heater. We've sprouted seedlings on the dining room table and on the patio table (in warm weather). Most seeds will sprout more quickly at temperatures between about 72 and 86 degrees, but have a good germination rate at around 70. In other words, a comfortable temperature for you will be good for your seeds.
10. Watch and wait. As soon as most of the seedlings emerge, they will need their plastic tent removed and to be moved to a sunny place, not necessarily in direct sunlight at first. In a future post, we'll talk about what happens next.   

January in the Garden

Today is home-grown and home-made meal day at our house. This morning we had eggs (from our chickens), sausage (made Saturday), biscuits, and milk (from our goats).  

Tonight we are planning Rosemary-Lemon Chicken, roasted cabbage, snow peas, butternut squash, and our home-made soft-drink.  Oh, and home-made ice cream for dessert! All food ingredients but the squash were harvested in the last few days or will be later today. The squash was harvested in summer. The ingredients for the soft-drink are not home-grown, but we do make it ourselves. The vanilla extract in the ice cream, is not home-grown, but it is home-made.

Several cabbages are ready to harvest, which means that we'll be making sauerkraut in the next few days.

January is time to plant garlic, onion, and shallot bulbs.

It's time also to prune roses. By the way, if you have plants that have been damaged by frost (like our kiwi vines), do not prune off the damaged parts. They may be ugly, but they'll help protect the rest of the plant from further frost damage.


Rake your lawn and/or your neighbors' lawns for leaves for your compost pile.

Once all the leaves have fallen from your fruit trees, you can prune them. While you are pruning your deciduous trees you can also trim your conifers.

Purchase and plant bare-root roses, fruit trees, vines, and veggies. Camellias and  Azaleas, too. 

Spray your roses and deciduous trees with a dormant spray.

Order seeds and supplies from seed catalogs (more on that in the next post).

A Fairly Normal Saturday

Several have asked about what a typical workday on our mini-farm might look like. First, in the spirit of full disclosure, there aren’t very many typical, or normal days. While we do have routines and schedules, life the way God created it has its variables, particularly in regard to when things need to happen.

Our goats need to be milked everyday, and so are central to scheduling whatever else might happen on a given day. The goats and all the other animals must be fed and watered, their shelters and bedding tended to, and whatever other husbandry needs to happen--like the daily egg collecting from chickens and ducks, daily watering and weeding in the garden, daily checks and adjustments in the fish farm.

Then there are the additional chores for Saturday: harvesting poultry and fish, making soap, making soda pop.

There are also chores related to the garden harvest which we like to be continual, but usually come in waves. Harvesting and preserving the harvest is the most labor intensive aspect of the farm. For example, when the Roma tomatoes are ripe, we have just about a week to get them all picked at their peak, and then comes the processing for canning or drying. It is a good thing for us when this work can happen on a Saturday, but it doesn’t always.

When possible, we plan for the “extra” work to occur on Saturday. Our weekdays are pretty well used up with the daily farm chores, school, work, and a few extracurricular activities. Sunday is the Lord’s Day, and we try to devote ourselves and our energy more completely to Him and His work and worship on His day. So that leaves Saturday.

Saturday is the day we can all work on projects together that take more than an hour to accomplish. On weekdays we set aside an hour in the morning and an hour at midday to do our farm chores. Each takes his or her turn to feed and milk the goats, weed and water the garden, tend the poultry, feed the dog, sweep the porches, mind the baby, and so forth. If we need to put up a fence, or to build raised beds,  do some plumbing, or harvest some poultry, Saturday is the day.

So far with today about half over, we have harvested four chickens, made 5 pounds each of Italian and breakfast pork sausage, picked snap peas and cauliflower, changed a wheelbarrow flat, took down the last of the Christmas lights, and started work on some new raised beds. After a break for some refreshments, we'll see what else we can get into: possibly haircuts, making soap, and/or making toothpaste.

Time to Make Compost

In our Southern California garden there are always things growing and things to do, even in the middle of winter. We have cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, and snap peas ready to harvest as well as oranges, tangerines, limes, and avocados. Soon it will be time to plant bare-root roses, fruit trees, and berries. In a couple of weeks, we'll be starting seeds indoors for plants to set out after the danger of frost has passed (usually around the first of April).

One thing we like to do in January is to look through the seed catalogs and garden books for ideas. Another is to add to or begin compost piles. Compost adds nutrients and organic matter to the soil. It will improve any soil over time, even if you add no other amendments. For us January and February are great months to make compost because of the availability of leaves. We have them, our neighbors have them. We get them from our neighbors for the asking (and the raking).

There are a number of different ways to make compost for the garden. Some are labor intensive, others not so much. We prefer the less labor intensive sort when we can get away with it. However, the less attention and work you give your compost, the longer it will take to be ready for your garden.

The easiest way to make compost is to make a pile and let it sit for months until it is finished and/or you are ready to use it. Pick a spot in an out of the way corner of your garden to make your pile, keeping in mind that you will be hauling stuff to and from the pile. (If your garden is in the near part of your yard, you don't want to build your compost pile in the far part of your yard. Unless of course, you enjoy using the wheelbarrow or carrying a bucket.)  After you've chosen a convenient spot, scratch up or turn over the soil that will be under the pile. Then, add your yard and kitchen wastes to the pile, mixing them together as you go. You could build a bin out of wire or hardware cloth, or other materials, but this is not absolutely necessary with this method.

Add kitchen scraps (but no meat or fats) and yard trimmings to the top of the pile over time. You may need to sprinkle a little water on the pile once in a while to keep it moist but not soggy.  When you are ready to plant your garden, remove the top layers of unfinished compost, setting them aside for starting a new pile. The finished compost will be at the bottom of the pile. Collect it into your bucket or wheelbarrow, put the unfinished stuff in its place and head for the garden with your finished product.

You can dig the compost into the soil as you plant or you can use the compost as a mulch, or both.

There are other ways to make compost that require more effort, but produce a finished product in as little as two weeks. Duane and Karen Newcomb's book, The Postage Stamp Garden Book: Grow Tons of Vegetables in Small Spaces has an appendix devoted to various methods of making compost.

We don't have much kitchen waste that makes it to the compost pile because most of it goes to the ducks, geese, and chickens (oh, and the rabbit, too). We do use bedding from the goat pen and yard trimmings. You can read here about Our Composting System that goes on right in the garden beds.

One of the best books we've found to help us understand the soil is Teaming with Microbes: The Organic Gardener's Guide to the Soil Food Web, Revised Edition, by Lowenfels and Lewis.