January Garden Tasks

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).

Making Turkey Stock

Once you remove all the meat from your Thanksgiving turkey (this is easier when while the turkey is still warm), put the bones on to simmer right away to make stock to use in soups and sauces for the rest of the holidays and after. It may help keep you and your family from getting the winter colds and flu that always come around.

Homemade stock offers three nutritional benefits that are in readily digestible form:

1. Minerals calcium, magnesium, silicon, sulphur and phosporous and critical trace minerals.

2. Gelatin which is good for many tissues of the body -- cartilage, bones, joints, skin, digestive tract, and muscles including the heart. Gelatin also boosts immunity. The majority of our immune system is located in our gut, and gelatin soothes and heals the intestinal mucosa.

3. Glucosamine and chondroitin sulphates, good for joint maintenance.

Making turkey stock is very easy. Put the carcass in a large pot (1-2 gallons) and cover with water. Add 1/4 cup of vinegar (this will help to release minerals from the bones and cartilage). Bring to a boil over medium to high heat. Reduce to medium to low heat and simmer for 24-48 hours. Skim off any foam that forms on the surface while simmering. After 24-48 hours, allow the stock to cool and strain out the bones. You'll have a gallon or two of yummy stock.

Easy, healthful, and tasty.

Time to Plant Garlic, Onions, and ... Strawberries

In our Southern California garden, this week (the first week in November) is the time to plant garlic, onions, and strawberries for best results in the spring and summer. (See what else to plant in November.)

These three garden favorites may not seem to go together, but when it comes to planting time, they are a perfect match. We're not talking about companion planting--the idea that some plants do better when planted near certain other plants (Carrots Love Tomatoes: Secrets of Companion Planting for Successful Gardening by Louise Riotte is the book to read if you want to know all about it.). We're talking about timing.

Research and testing at the University of California Agricultural Extension show that "strawberries planted between November 1 and 10 get winter chill at the precise moment in their growing schedule to trigger fruit production rather than foliage" (Pat Welsh's Southern California Gardening: A Month-by-Month Guide, pg. 285).

It doesn't pay to order strawberries from catalogs. Strawberries are a regional crop. Just a few miles north of here, different varieties of strawberries flourish that would languish here and vice versa. Plant runners from your own strawberry patch or purchase plants (bare root if possible) that are adapted to your area.  We're planting "Sequoia" this week. The varieties available in local nurseries will be successful in your area.

This is the perfect time to plant onion seeds because onions are sensitive to day length and to temperature--in a word, they are photothermoperiodic. (Your sesquipedalian for today. Unless of course you are hippopotomonstrosesquipedaliophobic!)

Each variety of onion is stimulated to begin bulb growth and slow top growth when the hours of daylight reach a certain length--a number which varies greatly, depending on the variety. Long-day onions do well in northern latitudes, while short-day onions, do well in the south. According to long-time onion grower Dixondale Farms "The short-day varieties start the bulbing process when daylight length reaches 10-12 hours. They take approximately 110 days to mature in the south and just 75 days in the north. The earlier you plant them, the larger they get, but they won't get very big in the northern states."

We're planting "Yellow Granex" onion seeds this week. Other short-day varieties that do well here in Southern California: "Grano," "Crystal Wax," "Red Creole," and any of the "Texas" varieties. (Check out Burpee's Short-Day Onion Collection .) There are also intermediate day-length onions that if planted here in February will make bulbs in the summer. (Try "San Felipe.")

We're planting lettuce, too!

We're also planting garlic now. Plant individual cloves about 4 inches apart and 2 inches deep with the points upward in soil rich with humus. You can purchase globes of garlic at the nursery or in the produce section of the supermarket.

November in the Garden

Plant garlic, shallots, cabbages, kale, onions, peas, fava beans, broccoli, carrots, turnips, beets, spinach and other cool-weather greens.

Plant strawberries!

Make successive plantings of fast growing greens: cilantro, lettuce, and chervil.

Pull up tomato plants, roots and all, leave the green fruit. Hang whole vines in a protected place and pick fruits as they ripen.   

Harvest Brussels sprouts, cabbage, broccoli, carrots, turnips, collards, and kale after frost sweetens their flavor.

Watch out for frost! Cover crops with floating row covers to protect them if the weatherman says the overnight lows will be in the low 40's or colder. If a freeze is predicted soak the ground before you put the covers on.

October in the Garden

As the weather begins to cool here in Southern California, it's time to plant fall and early spring crops.

Sow seeds:

• fava beans
• beets
• celery
• chard
• chives
• garlic
• kale
• kohlrabi
• leeks
• lettuce 
• romaine
• bibb
• buttercrunch 
• onions
• green
• long-day 
• parsley
• peas
• radishes
• spinach
• shallots

Transplant:

• artichokes
• asparagus
• broccoli
• Brussels sprouts
• cabbage
• cauliflower
• strawberries

Harvest:

• horseradish
• Macadamia nuts  (those fallen to the ground)
• Squash

Spaghetti Squash

Have you heard about spaghetti squash? We are growing some this year for the first time. One of the reasons we hadn't grown it before is that we tend to resist things offered as "substitutes" for other things. Spaghetti squash, as the name suggests has been promoted as a substitute for pasta. It is not a substitute. It is an alternative. For this reason, according to one seed company website, the name "spaghetti squash" is confusing or misleading, so this squash has been renamed to "vegetable spaghetti." We're pretty sure this is not an improvement. "Spaghetti" (the presumably confusing part) is still in the name, and now we can't tell what kind of "vegetable" it is from the name. Seems more confusing now than before.

However, spaghetti squash is tasty, buttery sweet, though it doesn't overpower with squashiness the sauce or whatever it is you are serving over it. We've had ours under a tomato meat sauce (as for spaghetti) and under chili. It is also good plain, topped with butter and a pinch of salt and pepper.

Spaghetti squash is easy to cook: bake, boil, slow-cook, or microwave, your choice. However, spaghetti squash can be difficult to cut. Cutting one of these raw requires a sharp knife and some strength along with agility (keep your fingers out of the way!). Fortunately, it can be cooked whole.

Cutting first: The advantages to cutting the squash in half (lengthwise) before cooking are that it cooks faster, and you can save the seeds to plant or you can roast them (all squash seeds can be roasted and eaten like pumpkin seeds). The disadvantage to cutting the squash before cooking is the effort in cutting through the thick rind and scraping out the seeds and pulp. Bake in the oven rind side up at 375 F for a half our or so, or in the microwave for 6 to 8 minutes (let stand for a few minutes after), or boil for 20 minutes or so. Put it in the slow-cooker with a cup of water or so for 2-3 hours on high, 6-8 hours on low. Regardless of method, you'll know when it's done when it yields easily to a fork. Separate the strands with a fork.

Leaving it whole: The advantage here is that it is easier. Just pierce the rind with a sharp knife in a couple of places and its ready to cook. If you don't pierce it, you may have a squash bomb on your hands when the steam builds up inside. This is especially the case when using the microwave (we don't own one). It does however take longer to cook and you'll need to be careful not to get burned as you cut the squash and scrape out the seeds and pulp. Bake at 375 F for about an hour. Microwave for 10 to 12 minutes and let stand for at least 5 minutes afterward to allow the steam inside to finish cooking it. Boil for a half an hour or so. Put it in the slow-cooker with a cup of water or so for 2-3 hours on high, 6-8 hours on low. Again, regardless of method, you'll know when it's done when it yields easily to a fork. Allow to cool slightly and cut it open lengthwise and scrape out the seeds and pulp. You might want to use an oven mitt or two. Separate the strands with a fork.

Some have suggested that when the whole-baked squash is hot, cutting it around the middle rather than lengthwise may facilitate scraping out the seeds and separating the strands. We haven't tried this, and we don't plan to. It seems to us that reaching down into a very hot, enclosed area is more conducive to burns than working along side a hot, open area. Also, the halves are more stable on the counter when cut lengthwise.

Spaghetti squash will keep for up to six months if stored between 50 to 60 degrees. Buy them in season when they are least expensive, or if you have lots of space, grow your own. Choose squash without any breaks or other blemishes in the skin. Put them in the coolest (temperature wise) room in your house. If you don't have a place in your home that stays between 50 and 60 degrees through the winter, don't worry, the squash will keep at room temperature for several weeks.

Harvest Time! -- Now what do we do with all this?

It's harvest time, and everything seems to be ready to pick at once! Peaches, tomatoes, peppers, corn, berries, figs, herbs, greens and more. The farmers' markets are brimming with all kinds of ripe fruits and veggies--an prices may come down a little. Now's the time to look for deals.

Here in our Southern California garden, we don't have to worry about putting up part of the harvest to get us through the winter (we grow things all winter long), but we do have a surplus from time to time and have to make a choice as to how we will preserve or store the bounty. We can't eat it all before it begins to spoil.

One preferred choice is to give away at least some of our "extras" storing up treasure in heaven, and enjoyment and good will in our neighbors and friends.

Another choice is to sell or trade our excess. Selling is in effect storing the food in the form of money to be traded for food in the future. We could also trade with friends and neighbors who have surplus in areas we do not--the community concept. The advantage here is that we can get some of the other things we need or want by trading our extras.

A third choice is to preserve the bounty by canning, freezing, pickling, or drying. (More choices to make!)

Canning, or more accurately, "jarring," is a lot of work and extra heat in the house--something quite undesirable in the late summer heat. Canning, because of the cooking required, removes nutrients, taste, and texture from the food. Compare the taste of grocery store canned peas or green beans or asparagus compared to their freshly prepared counterparts. Well, there is no comparison. One advantage of canning however, is that no further energy is required for storage, unlike freezer-stored foods.

Freezing requires almost as much heat and work as canning. To preserve texture and taste most foods destined for the deep freeze need to be heated and then blanched in cold or ice water before being flash frozen (in single layers on trays), and then packed for the long freeze. Advantages include usually better flavor and texture than canned produce and a little less time an heat in the kitchen for preparation. The big disadvantages: limited space in the freezer and the energy to run it.

Pickling produces yummy and nutritious results, but requires a fridge or root-cellar-type-arrangement for long-term storage. In our part of the world, root cellars are pretty rare. If kept reasonably cool, sauerkraut, for example, will keep for many months, even years (ask Captain Cook's crew), but taste and texture will suffer. Nobody wants to bite into a soggy tasteless dill pickle, which is what you'll have if you leave your pickle jar on the counter. Eventually pickles will begin to breakdown. Cold or at least cooler temperatures are required for long-term (over winter) storage.

That leaves drying or dehydrating, and there are at least three ways to go here. (Still more choices to make!). The keys to food drying are good air circulation and high enough temperatures to dry the food quickly. Any of the following methods will work, but some are more convenient to use, or faster or can be used indoors or outdoors.

You could heat up the house some more and oven-dry your harvest, placing thin slices or small pieces of your extras on cookie sheets or other trays in an oven set on a very low setting. So that moisture can escape the food and the oven, the door should be left slightly open--more heat in the already very warm house. Our oven's lowest setting is 200 degrees F, much higher than is needed.

Another choice is solar drying. Whether you use window screens as trays and covers for your produce or a more elaborate setup, avoid putting your dehydrator any place where air pollution or anything else in the air could taint your produce. One major drawback to a solar dryer is that it will not work indoors. If a summer storm comes over, you'll be scrambling to move or cover your dryer setup and therefore putting the drying on hold.

Our favorite way is to use an electric dehydrator. We have used three different styles and can say confidently that not all dehydrators are created equal.

Years ago we had a dehydrator that was powered by a single light bulb. It did its job, but the heat was constant (not adjustable) and not very even throughout. There were three or four small racks for the food, which we had to rotate so that everything would dry evenly.

We then graduated to an American Harvest Food Dehydrator made by Nesco. This dehydrator heats the food evenly and has good air flow. The heating element (adjustable) and fan (also adjustable in earlier models) are in the base. The round, stacking trays fit together to make channels through which the air flows. The only drawback we see in this dehydrator is that the distance between the trays is not adjustable.

Our favorite dehydrator is the Excalibur. The drying trays slide into its cabinet, allowing for more space between trays if necessary. Removing all trays allows the dehydrator to be used as a yogurt maker. For our family it is handy to make yogurt in half-gallon jars which our nine-tray model will accommodate. The five-tray model will hold quart jars. We have also used our dehydrator as a proofing box for bread and pizza dough.

How we use our dehydrators most often (in order of frequency):

1. Making yogurt (about once a week)
2. Drying herbs.
3. Making Crispy Nuts.
4. Drying fruits and veggies from the garden or farmers' market.
5. Drying homemade pasta.

Our tastiest use of our dehydrators: beef jerky!