Making a Mandarin Happy!

So sorry it's been so long!  Hope you all have had a wonderful Christmas and are headed to a marvelous New Year!  I have had a few days off from the High School job and have been trying to do some cleaning and updating here at Wicked Raven.  One of the things that badly needs done is to transplant the Mandarin Tree.

 

This is a Mandarin tree that we have been growing for about three years now.  It is a four year old tree and belongs to Reed, my 13 year old son.  He has chosen a couple of interesting plants to grow indoors and this is one of them.  The pot it is in is only about a 12" pot and it has now far outgrown it so it will be transplanted to the large 36" pot on the right.    It is the dead of winter and has been -20 degrees for about 2 weeks so this process has to be done indoors and as the pot is so large and hard for me to move - its getting done right where it is!  The mandarin doesn't seem to mind temperature swings as much as the lemon trees do, and the loss of light doesn't seem to bother it either.  It has not produced so far though so I don't know if that will make a difference.  The lemon trees are all stressed right now and have lost all their leaves.  The window that this sits in front of is a set of French doors and they are right above our garage so if the garage door opens it affects the temperature and when it is -20 even the floor in that area is cold.

Above you can see the new pot and the tools I will use to do the transplant.  I use the trowel just to loosen the soil in the new pot (it had an avocado in it before that didn't live).  The water jug is only half way filled as I will be putting worm juice in the rest of it so that I am feeding at the same time I am watering the new soil.   The pink bucket is what I actually use to scoop the soil out into a bucket to make room for the plant.

This is the bucket with the worm juice in it.  I had to thaw it out - I have been freezing the worm juice to make sure there are no white flies or other bugs that could have gotten into the garage (where my worms live - see the worm blog at http://wickedraven.blogspot.com/2013/01/finally-worm-one-or-growing-dirt-in_11.html Now that its thawed I will mix it into the water jug about half and half.

I've dug out about as much soil as I need to.  (The spike plant you see sticking up in this picture is an Amaryllis that I have been nursing for about 3 years as well - it always looses its leaves and blooms around Christmas - perfect)!

I put the whole potted plant into the hole I have scooped out to make sure I have it big enough.  Then I put some of the worm/water mixture into the bottom of the hole and tipped the tree out of the old pot and into the new.

Scoop some of the soil out of the bucket and make sure you get the roots covered well enough that a good dose of water wont uncover them.  I did gently press the soil around the pot, watered once, added some more dirt and watered again.  That way I know I have good soil coverage on the roots and that I have watered the plant adequately.  The blue ball you see there is a glass fishing float.  I often add them to my plants so that when I pour water in the pot I can pour it on the float and it doesn't erode a hole in the soil.  Glass floats can be found at antique shops or sometimes on the beach if you are really lucky!

This is a rooted avocado plant that we will be putting into the pot that the Mandarin came out of.  We have tried the avocado before and have not been successful, but we are learning every time and eventually we will get it.  The last one we did not water often enough to get water to the bottom of the pot.  Ill keep you posted on how that goes and will do an avocado blog at a later date to give you all the details.

 

Don't be afraid to try things that you think wont grow in your area - just grow them indoors!  Don't worry if you don't have a lot of room - put the plant on a rolling plant stand so you can have it in front of any window and roll it out of the way if you need to!  Ill show you some of those in a future blog - that's a pallet upcycle!

 

Warm up with Cinnamon and Raspberries!

Now that it has snowed the requisite 10" here at Wicked Raven Farm, life begins to slow a bit as everyone tries to hunker down and hibernate for the winter.  We are all tired from harvesting, canning, storing and freezing and are ready for some rest and some warming recipes.

(This picture was taken November 10th 2013 - 10" of snow on the railing below the clothesline - it's dryer time again)

 

Warming recipes for me are about the same as comfort food recipes and a favorite here is raspberry jam with cinnamon.  I like to use up the berries from the freezer remaining from the prior year (if we have any), as they need to be used up and they make great jelly.

 

Start with frozen berries - you don't have to thaw them even - just throw them in your stock pot.

I usually have written on each bag how much I put in but often I have bags that are only partially filled from using them for pancakes, waffles and muffins.  Heat them through and then measure you berry product.  I have had to add water to make enough to make a full cup final measure - meaning you have full cups of product - 5 cups or 7 cups, etc.  no partials.

 

Add an equal amount of sugar to your berry product (5 cups berries to 5 cups of sugar, etc.) and then add 1 tsp of cinnamon per 2 Cups of product (10 cups of product = 5 tsp. cinnamon).  Add pectin as directed on package for the type you are using and bring to a short boil.  Simmer for about 10 minutes or until the product starts to gel on a cold spoon (sometimes this takes up to 30 minutes).

 

Put hot product in hot jars and seal using the "quick flip" method or by canning 10 minutes in a water bath canner.  Eat it with home made fresh bread, biscuits, or pancakes.  Watch out for boys who would eat it right out of the jar with a spoon!  Enjoy and stay warm this winter!

Ultimate Upcycle - Outgrown the Bunk Beds!

Since we have moved into the house here at Wicked Raven Farm back in 2005, the youngest has had an "L" shaped bunk bed set with twin beds and built in dressers.  The bottom bunk had head and foot boards and the top bunk was held up by the dresser on one side and a desk on the other side.  It was a great system for boys who like to build forts, hideouts and have a "high up" Nerf shooting station to hide and wait for his victims!  This year though - he outgrew the bunk beds!  No matter how he tried to sleep on those twin beds he ended up with a leg cramp or a dead leg from having it through the end or off the side of the bed.   So we moved on up to a full sized bed for him.  It is perfect!

The problem though is that we are still using the dresser and the desk from the set, but we didn't have as much use for the headboard, foot board and the ladder that went with them - that is until I had to pick up another hat, tripped on another fishing pole and got tangled up in a compound bow while trying to get to a load of laundry!

 
 

So for the compound bow that belongs to the older child (20 so not really a child) and for his hats, I used the ladder from the bunks and added some small hat hooks and a set of center hooks to hold the bow.   The hat hooks will also hold bow accessories!  Then I used the 90 degree angle fasteners with two screw holes to fasten the ladder securely to the wall.  Looks great and works like a charm to keep those things off the floor and out from under my feet!  It could also be used for fishing poles, guns (using bigger hooks) or as a coat rack and its a real space saver as well!

 

For the youngest child (13) I used the head and foot boards from the bunk and the hooks pictured above to make racks for holding his hats, fishing poles and backpacks full of fishing gear as well!

I measured how far between the hooks needed to be so that the poles could hang with the reels on them and not get tangled up and then I divided the board evenly by that number and screwed the hooks on each side.

 Most of the work I did in the greenhouse as I chose this as one of my "rainy day" projects, and that is where I hide my tools so I can find them when I need them!

 

These pieces worked well since I was able to utilize the wasted space behind a bedroom door for fishing poles and gear.  The rack is the perfect thickness to fit behind the door and not get dinged up when it opens, and it doesn't knock the hats and fishing poles off either! 

 

Each rack can hold 5 fishing poles and any number of hats as well as fishing gear packs!

If we had used a wider stance hook we could also use these to hold guns for storage as well!

These can be moved easily, they are lightweight so they do minimal wall damage, and they could be painted to match any décor.  Take a new look at that bedframe you have stored in the garage and see if you can't upcycle it into a valuable piece of space saving utility furniture!  Have fun!

Vim and Vinegar - Round 2!

In an earlier blog I promised you another round of vinegar infusion and here it is!  Tarragon is one of the herbs that thrives on the farm (see above for "Whats thriving on the farm" tab).  It's not one that lends itself to being easy to cook with however as the flavor is very strong and it is easy to overwhelm your dish with this herb.  It was a recent basket ingredient on Chopped!  I like to use it as an infusion herb for this reason.

Tarragon grows easily here on the farm and seems not to mind wet, dry or poor soils.  It grows to about three feet tall here and when crushed with the hand you can smell it from a long way away for a long time.  I have also planted this around my apple and other fruit trees with great success - the moose tend to avoid those trees with the Tarragon planted around them.

Ginger Tarragon Vinegar infusion

for the size of bottle shown above

3 large sprigs of Tarragon

5 fresh ginger nodes (the little finger parts on the sides of the root)

Enough white vinegar to fill the bottle.

Mix all of the above in your bottle and store in a cool dark cupboard, shaking occasionally.  This product should be ready to use within 2 weeks.

It is a beautiful infusion and can be used in many sauces and marinades.

 

Bar B Q London Broil

For a 4 lb London Broil

 

2 C. Ketchup

1/2 C prepared mustard

3 cloves of smashed garlic (more if garlic makes you happy as it does us)

1/4 C light olive oil

1/2 C Ginger Tarragon Vinegar

1 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp onion powder

 

Mix all together and pour over the raw london broil (sometimes I use a Ziploc bag for this part).  Let marinade for at least two hours or overnight if possible.  Cook on medium grill heat for 15 minutes, turn, baste with sauce, cook 15 more minutes and repeat until to your desired doneness.  Enjoy!

Houston High and the Great Potato Project Part II - The Great Harvest

If you havent read the first part of the Houston High School and the Great Potato Project - please see the post from August 7, 2013 so you can have all the details!

We planted 36 potatoes in 4 pallet bins, and nurtured them through some crazy events and weather!  We had two bins that we had to restart due to people filling them with rocks or putting their children in them seeming to use them as a "potatoe bin babysitter".  Last Monday the students and two of the teachers went out and harvested what was there - it was not nearly as much as we expected or desired, but we all learned a lot and the kids seemed to love the whole process and they learned a lot and had some super fresh produce to cook in the culinary arts class!

9:00 am and yes it is just getting light!  The kids are listening to a short lecture about potato care from Culinary arts instructor Mat Bredburg (you can see him at the very back of the group with the light green shirt on - the tallest one there).  They haven't turned over any bins yet.

Bin one has been turned over and the kids are getting some spuds out.  All total we only got about 10 pounds (we expected at least 30), but the kids were happy to get something and they had fun doing it.

Mr. Wagoner our Yearbook and Business instructor is leaving no spade unturned and will made sure every last spud is harvested!  Way to go Wags!

We will be setting aside the bins intact and using them next year.  We plan to ask for some help from the garden community locally and start a garden club of some type at the school as well as do some more soil supplementation, we are looking to increase our production for next year.

This is the second group of students to go out and harvest - we had two culinary arts classes and the yearbook class that went out during two different class times - so one class got to harvest in brighter daylight!

 

We arent sure why the production was so low.  A number of factors could be involved and I think the top three reasons are (1)  the soil that came out from under the football field that we started with was very compacted and probably didnt have any nutrients left, and when it got hit with water it would super-compact again, stunting our growth, (2) the weather went from blazing hot to very cool in a short space of time and (3) it is possible we had some seed that was not in the first 3 generations and therefore was weak seed.  Next year we plan to try to get some first gen seed and see if we dont have better success.

 

I have talked to numerous farmers throughout our Valley and many of them had the same problem with production that we did - we were not alone - not that it makes us feel any better - just doesnt make us feel worse!

 

The school has a number of staff and students on board with this project and we plan to plant as early as possible next year - hopefully during the school year so the students in the Culinary arts, biology, and ecology classes can participate in the planting process.  This year it snowed 6" the day before school got out so we didnt get to plant with the students there. 

 

There are a couple of other schools in Aalska that have these types of gardens including Huffman Elementary in Anchorage (they have a much larger garden than ours right now) whose students harvested 1500 pounds of potatoes to donate to the local food bank!  Way to go Huffman - Way to make a difference! View their project here:  http://www.adn.com/2013/09/27/3097974/huffman-potato-harvest-2013.html

 

Overall this project was a very simple way to teach kids and grownups how to grow and treat some of their own food and I hope everyone tries to do this in their community or at their school!  Have fun with it!

 

 

 

 

Winter Came Early - A Green Tomato Blog

It snowed here in our little burg today - that means that summer is over and winter has officially begun!  Since I was not able to upgrade the solar system to run the tiny fireplace in the greenhouse, that means that I have lots of green tomatoes that were not able to ripen before the snows and cold came.

So - what do you do with green tomatoes?  I know everyone has heard of fried green tomatoes and we probably all have a recipe for them, but what about the ones that arent that big, or dont lend themselvs to frying?  How about some green tomato relish?  I made it over the weekend and it is yummy!

Start with your green tomatoes (I used more than this but forgot to take a picture of the whole pile), do a fine dice on them until you have about 2 cups.  Place them in a stock pot and

dice finely 1/4 white onion and 1 medium red pepper (I used a small tabasco for some heat)

Add 1/2 C, Cider vinegar and 1/2 C. brown sugar, 1 Tbsp mustard seed, 1 Tbsp coarase salt ( I used a Spanish Sea Salt), and 1 tsp black pepper.

Cook over medium heat and simmer until almost all of the moisture is gone.   It may seem like it is gelling a little and that is ok.  You can certainly make more if you have enough tomatoes - doouble or triple the recipe works fine!

Place in small jars and water bath can for 10 minutes or if you will be using it immediately store in the fridge for up to two weeks.  Enjoy!

Ultimate Upcycle - those Tired Tires!

I know that potato blogs are probably getting old but I do have to let you in on a little secret about them – they grow really, really well in old tires!  We had 10 tires from a different project that never made it into the completion line up that I needed to use or get rid of since they were really in a big ugly pile on the farm so – taking a page from the pallet potato bin and the way the spuds can be buried after they come up I decided to plant potatoes in the tires and see what happened.

I planted three potatoes in each tire and covered them good with soil.  Below you can see the spuds peeking up from the soil just barely!

 

I initially planted them in the one tire with the other tire setting to the side ready to go on top and be filled with dirt. (see below)  I let the spuds get about 4-6 inches tall and then placed the next tire on top and filled it with dirt

Here is the next tire on top waiting to be filled. It was a little scary putting so much dirt on top – I wondered if I was crazy to try this.

 

 

 Here is the tire full of dirt – you can see in between the tires a little spud leaf that I didn’t quite get tucked in far enough peeking out.  I have a total of 4 sets of two tires high with different types planted in. Some Yukon Golds, some purple peanut and some gold finger. Next year I will staple some sand paper around the bottoms of the tires, as this year I had a slug problem and they crawled right up the outside of the tires to get my plants. Potatoes must be a favorite for them.  

 

Above you can see how the slugs have decimated the potato plant - I decided to harvest this one as it was in such bad shape that I didnt want the spuds to rot because of lack of nutrients.  Its definitely not getting ay from this plant!

 

I dont often have slugs - usually the Canada Geese land in the yard in the spring and eat them all up while resting for the next leg of the journey.  This year because the snow stayed for so long and we had such a late snow - the geese passed us by and didn't eat the slugs - hence the slug problem - I pray for geese next spring!

 

 

Here are the other three tire bins -- the slugs didnt get to them as badly so they still look great!

 

Here is a set of potatoes peeking through as I dig through the dirt after removing the first tire.

Here is a great patch of supds from the tire bin.  I think if I had been able to leave them a little longer they would have had even more!

 

This beautiful trug was made by Doug Carney at Snowfire Gardens (www.snowfiregardens.com or www.snowfiregardens.net).  It works perfectly for harvesting and even for rinsing veggies and produce in the sink or with a hose!  Its even better that it is sporting spuds!

 

We did notice a little cracking on some of the spuds and we think the tires may have overheated with the hot sun we had this summer (hotter than average).  It was only two potatoes and they were ones that were in the inside part of the tire (like where the tube would go).  I dont think it will be a problem per se.  I am doing some research into whether tires leach chemicals into the soil - one of the kids raised that question the other day.  Ill keep you posted on that when I find out!

 

Happy Harvesting!

 

Fantastic Thrift Store Score! A Wicked Raven Designs Post

This is a whole bolt of fabric that I scored at a local thrift store for $12.00!   The fabric is of an unknown blend and so I will not be using it to quilt with and instead with part of it I will be making pillow cases.

Pillow cases are pretty easy to do and buying them is so expensive! I had company coming a few years ago and wanted to dress up a room so I went to buy a set of pillow cases and they wanted $17.00 for a set! I just couldn't do it - so I figured out how to make them.

Start with a yard of the fabric you want to use for the bigger part of your pillow case set.  Cut it 25 inches long and 41" wide (for this one it is the width of the fabric without the selvage).

 

 Then sew the side and bottom together (right sides together).

 

Then you will need 9" x41" of your secondary fabric for the pillow case trim. 

You will sew the ends of this part together to make a big fabric circle (see below) and then fold in half and iron it flat.  If you are short of your trim fabric you can make it a single and hem stitch it but after a few washes and a tussle or two  by some boys those edges start to unravel and it makes a mess.  This way the edge lays nicely and doesnt ever have to be trimmed up.  Trust me on this one - voice of unravelled experience here!

Then sew the trim onto the case, it ends up being right side of the trim to wrong side of the case so the seam will be correct and inside the pillow case.  Iron it and put it on a pillow!  Done!

These are really easy and fast - each case is about 20 minutes once you have done it a time or two.

This is next up for another set of cases made with this awesome thrift store score!

Dont be afraid to get that bargain even if you dont quite know what type of fabric it is - this can be used for some outdoor pillows or cushions for that guest futon you have - or send it with a collage student and you wont feel bad about never seeing them again!  Donate one or two to the Million Pillowcase drive at your local fabric store (ours is Sylvias Quilt Depot www.sylviasquiltdepot.com).  There are almost a million things to do with a whole bolt of fabric and when it starts to get blustery like it has been for about a week here at Wicked Raven - crafting keeps me warm too!  Happy crafting!

Pallet recycle - easy compost bins!

We have done some serious upcycling here at Wicked Raven Farm, but this one is a fun and easy upcycle of two pallets into a compost bin  for all the extra grass clippings and organics that are produced by a yard, gardens and kitchens.

I started with two of the pallets that had the slats fairly close together and using the saw shown below I cut them in half - or close to in half - because of the center post that helps hold the pallet together I had to cut just above it.  So I had two halves that are shorter and two that are taller.  I didnt even have to take any slats off - just cut em as is!

It worked well and I was able to screw together the sides with the two taller across from each other and the short ones across from each other.  The other tools I used are an electric drill and some good decking screws.

 This is the set up I used to put it together.

Here is the box in its (probably) forever home!  I have already put some of the newest grass clippings and yard rubble in it in this photo you can just see it peeking up in the box.  I did use some other left over board slats for the open ends of the pallets so nothing falls out.  They were ones that had fallen off of other pallets - didnt even have to work to get them off!

The above photo shows three of my composting systems - the center box is the older one that has nearly completed compost in it.  It is a recylce/upcycle as well - I got it free from Jackovich - it's an engine/cable crate that they were going to throw away!  All I had to do was ask and load it into my car!   I dont want to add anymore product as I need to be able to use it soon and it gets really hard to turn the compost in a box that is so deep.  The black barrell behind it is my rolling composter - it works great but it also has a nearly completed batch in it and if I add more I dont think Ill be able to turn it!  Hence the need for the new box to put the organics in!

 

Total project time was only about an hour and a half and free!

 

Stay tuned for another round of pallet upcycle coming soon!