August Garden Chores

Time to start seeds for your fall garden!

August is a month that many gardeners in the interior areas of Southern California just wait out, because many of their gardens are just burnt up by the consistently high temperatures. However, there are some gardening activities that can go on, and a few that must: watering, pest control, and harvesting.

Watering: Drip irrigation is probably the most efficient method. Sprinklers waste water and do not necessarily get water to the root zone where it is needed. Placing a hose with just a trickle of water at the base of plants for a long period of time is good for getting the water to where it is needed, but can take all day if you have a large garden, and not many hoses.

Pest control: Putting clear plastic over empty garden beds is a tool for getting rid of some soil borne diseases, insect pest eggs, and nematodes. Cover the soil with plastic, mound soil over the edges to trap in the heat generated by the sun shining on and through the plastic, and leave it in place for a month or more. Insect pests are in full force this month, so we spray with organic pesticides and repellents . If you are going to use a spray on your plants, spray very early in the morning or in the evening to minimize the risk of the spray burning the leaves.

Harvesting: We don't consider this garden task a chore, but rather a reward for the work put in over the growing season. There are few things in gardening more rewarding than to harvest dinner minutes before it is time to prepare it.Right now we're bringing in plenty of egg plant, bell peppers, tomatoes, herbs, and of course, zucchini.

We can also plant. In our zone 9 garden, any summer vegetable can still be planted, although sometimes we  may wait until September to plant fall crops. If you have time, energy, and space, you can of course do both.

We are planting corn this month as a corn maze to be enjoyed in the fall. We also will be planting pole beans, bush beans, tomatoes, okra, squash, and heat-tolerant greens. Any heat-loving variety of vegetable will do well. One thing to keep in mind: as the days get shorter and cooler, the time to maturity of the summer crops will increase. Some of the corn we are planting is listed as 80-90 days to  maturity, so instead of harvesting our ears in mid-November, we may have to wait until Thanksgiving Dinner! (Worth the wait.)

Here's the layout for our corn maze. Also new to the front yard are birdhouse and luffa gourds (on the fence), pumpkins (under and behind the orange tree), and a tree rose (far right) .

If you want to grow your own transplants for fall crops, August is the month to start them in flats, soil blocks, or pots. We'll be starting cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, Brussels sprouts, Chinese cabbage, kohlrabi and more. They'll be ready to set out in September.

One advantage that we have enjoyed with a fall garden is that there are fewer pests in the cold weather. Also, the brassicas (cabbage family) tend to taste better after a light frost. Win, win.

A salad garden is wonderful in the fall.  A four foot square bed is more than you needs to grow your own lettuce and greens for salads. The variety you can grow from seed is so much more than you can buy as transplants in the nurseries. Start your seeds soon.  If we can do it, so can you. Give it a try!

Instant Garden Beds

It's been a while since we posted anything new from the homestead. Right now, we're in the process now of reviving some of the garden beds that have been fallow the last year or so, and we're also making beds where there weren't beds before. However, we're in a hurry to get things going so we are making instant garden beds. We've used this method (modified according to materials available) before with good results.

Several years ago, Patricia Lanza wrote a book called Lasagna Gardening. She details there how she (almost accidentally) developed a system of establishing a garden bed by layering various organic materials (sheet composting) to form a garden bed over a few months (typically the winter months), or instantly. The layers can be put in place, and then planted in right away--provided the gardener makes planting hole in the mulch, filling it with mix of compost and garden soil or planting mix, and then transplanting a seedling into the spot.

The materials that we have used for an instant garden beds are kitchen scraps; cardboard; compost; and organic fertilizer from our goats and/or chickens (we like to use worm castings, too, but don't have any right now); and straw, wood chips, or goat bedding for the mulch on top. (See also OSU's Extension Service PDF on sheet composting.)

Geoff Lawton quickly shows how easy it is to set up a garden bed in this video.



Here's an earlier version of Geoff's method with very nice end results:




This set up is so fast, once you save up (or purchase) the materials, you could go out to make a garden after breakfast and be finished by lunch!

This technique not only provides a quick set up, but the beds can produce for years with a little preparation (adding new layers of compost, etc. covered once again with layer of mulch) before each planting.

As always, we encourage you to give gardening a try--if we can do it, so can you!

Our Aquaponics Efforts

We've been growing tilapia for about ten years and have had aquaponic grow beds for about eight years now.

Chocolate Peppermint in one of our grow beds.

At this writing we have three IBC totes serving as water tanks--two for fish and one as the sump tank, holding about 500 gallons of water and about 20 tilapia. The water and fish support two 4 x 4 x 1.5 foot grow beds filled with hydroton (expanded clay pellets) as the growing medium.

The water is continually circulated from the fish tanks through the growing beds and back into tanks. The fish make waste that is broken down by naturally occurring bacteria into food the plants absorb and use--cleaning the water for the fish. It is almost a closed system--the fish eat some of the plants growing in the system, but we do have to supplement their feed.

We test the water weekly (or more often if needed) to insure that the amonia-nitrite-nitrates process (bacteria breaking down the ammonia into plant-usable components) is working, and that the pH level is tolerable for plants, friendly bacteria, and fish. We add no fertilizer (the fish do that), though we do have to add chelated iron once in a while (the need indicated by chlorosis in the plants) and water as transpiration and evaporation take their tolls, but nothing else on a regular basis.

Here is a look at our fish:

The green stuff to the left in the video is duckweed grown in a floating container on the surface of the water--so that the duckweed can grow without the fish eating it. We harvest a little bit of this at a time as a daily treat for the fish. The green reflected in the water is the chocolate mint (pictured above) in the grow bed supported by these fish.

 We are planning to add a deep water culture (DWC) tank (using the rafts to grow greens directly in the water), but probably will have to move our whole system (or build an additional one) to accommodate the new tank.


Here is a video showing a large DWC operation.



(h/t to Gene Alley for the share on Facebook.) With solar power to run the pumps and grow lights, this could be a very sustainable system of food production. One major advantage/benefit to this system is that it can be done indoors (in a large warehouse) in the city, reducing transportation costs, increasing freshness and nutrition delivered to the consumer, and no chemical fertilizers, pesticides, or herbicides need be used. Input to the system could be simply water, occasional iron chelate, and food for the fish.

Australian aquaponic growers we follow have found that perch (their aquaponic fish of choice) and tilapia can be fed as we feed our chickens--greens, insects, grains, table scraps, etc. The offal from the harvested tilapia could be turned into fish emulsion fertilizer to grow crops for fish food and other crops for human consumption in soil containers and garden plots. Aquaponics could be an important cycle/system in a sustainable and cost effective food mass production system. It certainly works for us. We intend to expand our efforts and more fully integrate the system into our mini-farm production.

We encourage you to look into this ancient and yet modern and potentially self-sufficient food production technique. If we can do it, so can you!

We have read, applied, and recommend:
 Aquaponic Gardening: A Step-By-Step Guide to Raising Vegetables and Fish Together by Sylvia Bernstein.

Homesteader Breakfast

This is a near-perfect breakfast for me: Tomatoes and peppers from our garden, orange juice from our tree, eggs from our hens, milk and cheese from our goats.

Though we can't do this every day, let alone every meal, it is very satisfying to have meals that are completely from our mini-farm. Almost every meal has something home-grown or home-made--the more the better!

If we can do it, so can you. You don't have to be self-sufficient in everything, just endeavor to be self-sufficient in something and work form there. Try something. Work at it until you are comfortable with it and then add something new. Start with growing a few plants for food. If you like tomatoes, try growing them. Raise a couple of hens for eggs--you give them table scraps, they give you eggs and lots of entertainment! (as well as fertilizer for your plants). Try making your own bread, yogurt, or cheese.

If you have questions or need help getting started, let us know.

P. S. -- What would have made this the perfect breakfast? More of it. Perhaps with Naomi's home-made biscuits, or Denise's home-made bread or tortillas, and maybe home-grown and -smoked sausage or bacon or fish. Time to fire up the smoker....

Why and How We Make Our Own Ice Cream

Why do we make our own ice cream? Have you seen the ingredients list on a carton of ice cream? Did you know that not everything that is in that carton of ice cream has to be listed on the label? The government allows certain ingredients to be classified as "industry standards" and some as "generally regarded as safe" (GRAS) neither of which are required to be specifically listed in the ingredients.

Some things you may find listed on your favorite ice cream carton: propylene glycol (an anti-freeze, used to keep the ice cream from becoming rock-hard, and to reduce the formation of ice crystals), ethyl acetate, yellow dye #5, hydrogenated oils, high fructose corn syrup, dry milk solids, caroxymethyl cellulose, butyraldehyde, amyl acetate, diethyl glycol (egg substitute which is also used in anti-freeze and paint removers), aldehyde C-17 (cherry flavoring and a flammable liquid used in dyes, plastics, and rubber), piperonal (vanilla flavoring and a lice killer), ethyl acetate (pineapple flavoring and a leather and textile cleaner).

Here are a few more: mono- and diglicerides, disodium phosphate, benzyl acetate, mono stearate, sodium benzoate, polysorbate 80, potassium sorbate, modified corn starch, and soy lecithin.

While many of these are listed in the ingredients list, many are either industry standards (propylene glycol, e.g.) or are generally regarded as safe, and so do not have to be specifically listed. Some are listed as "artificial flavors or colors."

Some ingredients listed as "natural flavors" come from nature, but you might not think it natural to eat them. One such ingredient is castoreum, which is used as a vanilla flavoring as well as a component to raspberry and strawberry flavorings. Castoreum "is the [yellowish secretion] from the castor sacs of the mature North American Beaver (Castor canadensis) and the European Beaver (Castor fiber)." (Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castoreum) TMI: The castor sacs are located near the anal glands, between the pelvis and the base of the tail. They are scent "glands" used for marking territory. Castoreum is responsible for that extra-rich vanilla flavor in some store-bought ice creams! It's a yummy "natural" flavor.

Why do we make our own ice cream? So we know exactly what's in it, and that what's in it is truly natural and good to eat!

Now to the more pressing question: How do we make our ice cream?

Here is our peach sherbet with just 5 ingredients all of which you can identify and pronounce!:

Our ice cream is simple--just four ingredients for our chocolate ice cream. You can substitute your preferred milk for the goat's milk. Our blender holds about a quart, but our ice cream maker holds about 2  quarts, so we have to mix the first three ingredients with 1 quart of milk in the blender, then pour this into the maker, topping off with extra milk.

Chocolate Ice Cream Recipe

1/4  Cup Raw Honey (You could use unrefined sugar) or more to taste
1/4 Cup 100 Percent Cocoa Powder
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
Approximately 2 Quarts of Milk (we use goat's milk)


Put sugar, cocoa, and vanilla with 1 quart of the milk into the blender. Blend for about 5 min or until starts to look creamy. Pour into your ice cream maker - top off with extra milk to the fill line. Freeze in maker according to the manufacturer's directions. We serve ours right away and it is perfect. You could spoon it into a container and let it firm up in the freezer for up to a couple of hours.

Here's our peach sherbet recipe. You could substitute other fruits for the peaches.

 Peach Sherbet Recipe

Peach sherbet in the ice cream maker

4 cups ripe peaches, chunked (you can leave the skin on)
1 1/2 cups milk
1/3 cup honey (more to taste)
pinch of sea salt
juice from two lemons

Put everything into the blender. Blend until smooth.  Then blend a little longer to force more air into the mixture.

You may want to chill the mixture in the fridge for an hour or two. When we do this, we leave it in the blender carafe so we can put it back on the blender base and whiz it up one more time before putting it into the ice cream maker. The maker we have works well enough for us to transfer our mixture right from the blender to the maker without any chilling.

Once mixture is chilled (if necessary), freeze in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions.

We served ours right away and it was perfect. You could spoon it into a container and let it firm up in the freezer for up to a couple of hours.

There are lots of yummy recipes for homemade ice cream out there on the Internet. We find it useful to put whatever fruits or veggies we have coming in from the garden in a search string with "homemade ice cream" and see what comes up. If it sounds good, we'll try it. Sometimes it's just right to have "plain ol' vanilla." Whatever the flavor, we enjoy it because we know exactly what went into it.

Bone Broth

Bone broth is good for you! It's also very tasty and easy to make.

Bone broth (or stock) is a source of minerals in forms that your body can easily absorb: calcium, phosphorus, magnesium,  and potassium.  Bone broth is rich amino acids, glycine and proline, amino acids not found in significant amounts in muscle meat, the part we most often consume. It also contains compounds that are believed to reduce inflammation of the joints: chondroitin sulfate and glucosamine.  And last but not least, bone broth contains collagen--the  basic material for bone, marrow, cartilage, tendons, and ligaments--which when broken down in the broth produces gelatin.

There's a reason mom always made you chicken soup when you were sick! 
Going back more than a hundred years, studies have shown that the amino acids, glycine and proline, that are produced when making chicken stock reduce inflammation in the respiratory system and improve digestion. 

The gelatin in bone broth can help to heal a leaky gut, which may be of specific benefit those with inflammatory or autoimmune disorders. These compounds also reduce joint pain, reduce inflammation, prevent bone loss, and build healthy skin, hair, and nails.

Homemade is better!
If you do buy broth in the grocery store, be sure to check the label. Broth, often labelled "stock," is produced  with high temperature-, fast-cooking techniques, using lots of water (to make more product) which result in a watered down, non-gelling broth. It will be missing some of the benefits of a gelatin-rich, homemade broth. MSG and other "flavors" are often added to factory broth. To get all the benefits and avoid the pitfalls, make it yourself--it's easy.

Getting your ingredients together.
The bones: when you roast chicken, beef, lamb, bison, venison, pork, turkey, duck, or goose save the bones for making broth. Keep containers in the freezer for storing the bones until you are ready to make broth. While most people like to make broth from one kind of bones at a time, you can use more than one kind in a batch. If you don't have any bones saved up to use, visit your local butcher and ask for marrow bones, oxtail, or "soup bones." To ensure plenty of gelatin, include some larger bones like knuckles, or feet--chicken feet, beef or calves' feet, pigs' feet (fresh, not smoked).  Try to get bones from grass-fed or pastured animals.

Vegetables and herbs: classic broth or stock has onions, celery, and carrots added for flavor. These also impart important minerals. Other vegetables can be added: garlic, peppers, leeks, etc. Avoid cruciferous veggies like cabbage and broccoli--they impart a strong flavor and can make the broth bitter. The classic herbs include parsley, thyme, and bay leaf.

Salt and pepper: Peppercorns add flavor. Add salt to taste only at the end of the cooking process.

Vinegar: many recipes call for a little bit of vinegar. This helps to extract minerals from the bones, but in small amounts will not change the flavor of the broth. There are plenty of recipes on the Internet. Google "bone broth recipe."

Here is one of our favorite recipes.
 (It's simple and in a slow cooker--a combination that is hard to beat.):

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Simple Slow Cooker Stock

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 This stock is simple as can be to make and reliably turns out well. The onion floats to the top and caramelizes with the long cooking, adding delicious flavor. You should use enough bones to completely fill the slow cooker.

Makes about 4 quarts.

A bunch of chicken bones, about 6 cups
2 chicken feet or a piece of split pig's foot
1 onion coarsely chopped
2 tablespoons of vinegar
Cold, filtered water

Place the chicken bones in a large slow cooker. Add the feet and onion to the pot, then add the vinegar and enough cold filtered water to cover the bones. Let stand for 30 to 60 minutes. Cover and cook on low for 6 to 12 hours, checking occasionally to ensure that the bones remain covered with water and adding more water as needed.

Remove the bones with tongs and a slotted spoon. Strain the stock through a fine-mesh strainer into 2-quart Pyrex measuring containers or a large heatproof bowl and its ready to use in your recipes. If not using right away, cool to room temperature, then refrigerate uncovered for several hours, until the fat rises to the top and congeals. If desired, skim off this fat (you can use it in your cooking) and transfer the stock to containers, cover, and store in the refrigerator for up to 5 days or in the freezer for many months.

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From Nourishing Broth, a book we highly recommend (pp. 155-156). (Affiliate link to Amazon.com)

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Storage: If you freeze it your broth in ice trays, you can add it easily to recipes that call for small amounts.

What About Companion Planting?

Companion planting is all the rage these days. But is there really anything to it?

With over 30 years of gardening experience, I have to agree with expert gardener Derek Fell: "I am not a believer in companion planting for insect and disease control. For example, I have not found that garlic will confuse insect pests like carrot flies and repel them from a row of closely planted carrots. Neither do I believe that certain plants don't like—or somehow like—each other's company. Vegetables are not like black walnut trees, which exude a poison from their roots that inhibits other plants from growing near them. In my experience, all vegetable plants planted with correct spacing get along fine together. Moreover, most repellent qualities in plants are released only when the plant is bruised." (Emphasis mine --DCS  Fell, Derek [2011-04-26]. Vertical Gardening: Grow Up, Not Out, for More Vegetables and Flowers in Much Less Space [Kindle Locations 1747-1751]. Rodale. Kindle Edition.)

Some plants compete for the same nutrients as others, and therefore, appear to be "bad companions." If there is appropriate spacing and proper levels of nutrients in the soil, all plants get along just fine together.