Squash it! Go beyond the Zuchinni.

I am a fan of squash of all types and it grows well here at Wicked Raven Farm once we get it going!  I have always grown Zucchini here and we have fixed it a lot of different ways recipe wise.  Always a good filler or a side dish for us or in breads and cookies even.

This year I was turned on to a new kind of squash, and I had old Zucchini seed so germination was very poor for those - I just didnt get around to ordering new.  My Aunt Nancy had given us a few Grey Griller squash last summer to try from her plants and they were so wonderful that I did order seed for that this year so we could have our own!  Below photo shows one of the plants and you can just see a new squash forming in the center of the photo.

We do have to do some working at getting squash to grow here so they always get started indoors - either greenhouse or in the house and then usually they move out to the cold frame outside the greenhouse.  This year however, I didn't get the cold frame fixed from the rock-from-
the-mower-breaks-a-cold-frame-window incident, and the soil needed to be rotated out and I didnt get that done either so... the squash went into containers this time around and then I set them into the cold frame so they had a little wind protection at least.  They have done ok.  They are a little behind due to the cold spring and when I set them out I didnt put them in the cold frame at first and the wind broke off part of the plants and I had to start right over!  Second time is a charm for this crop!

Above photo shows two of the plants in the containers.  They are in plastic black pots and then set into the wooden "whisky barrel"  style containers.

This is a Grey Griller squash.  They are a bit smaller than the Zucchini but very tasty and they are easy to use.  Slice them about 1/4" thick and drizzle with oil on both sides.  Im not a very good drizzler though so I generally put the oil in a dish and dredge the squash through it.  Put it on a plate and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper and they are ready to grill.  We have also used Kodiak seasoning and separately we have used a little Hot Hawaiian salt on them and they are so delicious!  Have fun with it - use whatever seasonings you like. 

Grill for 10-15 minutes and serve with your meal.  We have a Traeger style grill oven so I don't get the grill marks but they work well on any type of grill.  We have also used the left over (there are rarely any left) on sandwiches like a tomato slice.  Yummy!!!  

You can get Grey Griller seeds from Territorial Seeds, Daves Seeds, or even Amazon.  Put this on your seed list for the next time you are ordering seeds.  You will not regret it!

Lets drop a bomb 2 - A cleaning one!

We have hard water here at Wicked Raven Farm - which means that it has a high mineral content and it sometimes leaves stains and buildup on things - namely the dishwasher!  We also have the issue of electric hot water (no natural gas here in our area) and so if someone showers once - or two people take a shower and I run the dishwasher there isn't enough hot water to get the dishes clean.  So about twice a year I have to clean the inside of my dishwasher.  So I worked up a recipe - loosely based on my hand cleaner recipe - only this is a powder and not a paste.  It also works great for cleaning toilets if you have let them go for too long in between deep cleans.  Happens here a lot - so you are not alone - or at least I hope I am not alone!

Dishwasher (or toilet) Cleaning Powder

3/4 C. Baking Soda

3/4 C. Citric Acid

3/4 C. Cornstarch

20 drops of Lemon essential Oil

20 drops Spearmint Essential Oil

10 drops of Eucalyptus Essential Oil

Mix all the ingredients in a glass or plastic bowl and use about 1/8 cup at a time.  Sprinkle it on the area that needs to be cleaned - it will fizz up  and just let it sit and fizz for a minute, then you can wipe off the grime!  For toilet, sprinkle it in the bowl area and let it fizz and soak for a few minutes and then brush as you normally would.  Saves on the scrubbing and I haven't had to use pumice stick for a while either!  Yay!  I hate that part of grown-upping!

This is the inside of my dishwasher - at least the parts that come out and are the ones that do all the filtering and getting out of the gross junk - usually!  Right in this picture though you can see how grimy the parts are!  Yuck-O!

 

Above photo shows those parts with the sprinkle on them soaking and fizzing a little before the simple scrub.

Above photo left shows the newly cleaned parts and above right shows them back in the dishwasher where they belong - almost sparkly!  You can see in the above right photo on the left hand side the orange area - I haven't used the powder on that yet - I ran out of time. 

Store your powder in an airtight container - I use an old protein powder scoop for mine - baby food scoop or even an extra laundry powder scoop will work to make it easy to shake it out with.

I hope it makes your life easier!

Houston High and the Great Seed Grant - Welcome to Hawk Farms!

Sorry it has been so long since you have seen a post on the great things that the kids are doing in the garden at the School - its just that kind of year for me - Ill do better from now on!

This year for the Houston High School Garden we applied for and received a seed grant from Seed Savers Exchange that gave us 100 packets of seeds to plant in our garden.  We were so excited!  Out of the 100 packets of seeds there were very few that wouldn't grow outside in Alaska.  (Okra, eggplant, and a few others).  We didnt get to choose our seed selection but no matter, we had some volunteers to plant some of the hot weather varieties in greenhouses for us to see how we did.  We are also planning a greenhouse for our garden, set to begin construction this fall so next year we will be able to have the seeds that we didnt use this time to grow in the greenhouse!

Above shows the box and some of the seeds!  We got some great radishes that have turned out to be a favorite - they end up looking like a peanut potato - brown skin and all - but they are so tasty! 

  

Helios they are called.

Photo above is Helios Radish - photo from Seed Savers Exchange. These arent ones that we grew but we have harvested some this size already from the garden.

Above photo's show the kids planting into the 4"pots in the classroom.  They each planted pots to leave for the school garden and some to take home as well if they chose!  Grow one, take one!

Here are some of the peas we got and and a couple of the cucumbers.  Our kids ended up planting during the last week of school (about May 15th) and - as you read in a previous blog, it has been the coldest start to spring in 5 years for us so that ended up being a little early for some of the plants - we had to start over with the cukes and most of the tomatoes and the two cukes shown above are ones the Mrs. Reese - another High School employee started for us in her greenhouse.  Thank you Mrs. Reese!

We have a classroom that has these great windowsills in it, it is in our culinary arts classroom but well away from the food prep areas so we were able to put the seed starts that the kids began in the window in their pots and it was nice and warm and had plenty of light too!

Here is another view of the other side of the windowsill and the awesome plants coming up that the kids planted!  The plastic tubs are an upcycle item - they are the tops of the containers that the cakes for graduation came in - they perfectly hold twenty 4" pots.

 Photo on the left is another shot of the kids planting.  They did so many varieties of plants and even some flowers!

Below are three photos of the kids planting in the garden in the raised beds.  They did both seeds and transplants that they had grown in the pots in the classroom.

Once the kids (and staff) went to plant the garden they made this great garden diagram/map sign so anyone who was visiting the garden will know what is planted and where.  This also will help so next year we can make sure we are rotating our crops in the grow bins appropriately.  And such great creativity - I love it!  If you are out at the garden - which you are welcome to do - it is hanging inside the little tool shed area - its open so you can see it we hung it in there so it wouldnt get as wet.

Also included in the seed package was some peanut potato seed - here they are coming up in one of the grow bins.  We all love potatoes here at the school (and at most of our homes too).

Here are those great Helios radishes coming up in the row with the carrots - we got 4 carrot varieties with our pack too!  So happy!

We dropped a bomb - now lets build a rocket - heater that is!

We are struggling with the cold here in Alaska this summer.  We have had only about three days of really good sun here and so I have been having to supplement the heat in the greenhouse so that the cucumbers will do what they are supposed to do.  I will admit it - I dont have the solar system hooked up still and so the tiny fireplace that I use to supplement the heat cannot be used right now - its a work in progress.

So the alternative is that I made a few candle mass heaters (sometimes called rocket mass heaters but I think those are ones that you can put wood in) to make up the couple of degrees that I need for heat supplement.  They are easy - all it takes ais a couple of brick pavers and some terra cotta pots and the bottoms to them and some pillar or even votive candles.

I watch the local thrift stores and garage sales for candles like the one pictures above - you can get them for about fifty cents each at those outlets - and as you have read before you can make your own with the toilet paper tubes  - see that post here.  I try to get ones that arent really scented as they end up being an allergen for some of my folks, and I dont like the sometimes chemical perfume smell in my greenhouse either.

Place your bricks on a flat surface away from wood or other flammables, and then put the saucer for the pot on the bricks.  The pot saucer can be a few sizes smaller than the pot itself - no matter.

Place the candle in the center of the saucer.....

Then turn the terra cotta pot so the bottom side is up over the candle.  I have seen a lot of folks do this with a couple of layers of pots - two or three pots stacked over the candle on top of the bricks.  I only use one because I use odd sized candles, and it is just faster than having to stack multiple pots up - Im a lazy gardener in this case I guess!

The brick pavers under allow air to circulate through so the candle doesnt go out and the hole in the top of the pot also allows heat to escape.  Once the candle is lit the heat comes out the hole and it also heats up the pot covering it.  I have had an increase of up to 10 degrees in my greenhouse between all of my candle mass heaters (I have 3 total but usually only use two).  I let them burn all night when it is really chilly - I know there are some safety issues with that but I have done my best to  alleviate those issues with the sizes of pot and saucer I am using.  So far it has been a great solution to my heat situation and is a cheap, easy fix!  It can also work in your house when the power is out too!  

Fire it up!