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!