On Feeding Oneself...

I watched these videos linked from the Homestead Revival blog this morning and thought I would share them here as well. While I do not consider myself to be a hard core doomsdayer (well, maybe just a little:) I surely can see some dark clouds gathering on the horizon and found all of the information put forth by Marjory Wildcraft in this presentation on food storage, water supply, and gardening to be very thought provoking to say the least.





For more information on the subject of food preparedness, my friend Lynn has written numerous excellent posts on her blog about food storage of late that include many useful links.

"Let us be in a position so we are able to not only feed ourselves through home production and storage, but others as well" - Ezra Taft Benson, former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture

Red Crapaudine Beet

Three of the most important things we look for in a vegetable are, adaptability to our climate, flavor, and how easily it can be stored or processed. It is always a pleasant surprise to find a new variety that meets all of these criterion. And so it is that after over four months in storage I can now say that, what was originally grown as a novelty, the Red Crapaudine beet we seeded in early 2010 does indeed seem to easily attain all of these standards.

This is a particularly old variety of beet, possibly one of the oldest beets in existence today...from what I've read, and has rather an unusual thick bark like skin, almost black, that will reportedly help it to over winter right in the garden, even in cooler climates. The Crapaudine also manages to stay under the soil rather than popping up like so many other cylindrical shaped beets tend to do. It will be interesting to put a few to the test this year and see whether or not they really can handle our winter conditions.

Crapaudine's have green foliage and a bright red interior with an earthy sweet essence that I really enjoy both raw and cooked...a very nice all around vegetable. As far as proportion goes they are similar in stature to a medium carrot and the ones we grew last year did vary quite a bit in size, definitely not the biggest beet in town. Because of their shape they would probably grow best in a loose friable soil or anywhere a carrot or parsnip thrives. We are looking forward to growing these old world beets for many more years to come.


So... Let's Eat Some Beets

The Best Laid Plans or Seven Birds and a Cat

The big difference between Mrs. H and I is that she's a "spur of the moment" kind of gal and I am a "let's take a year to think about it" type of guy. For example, a couple weeks ago she hollered at me from the other room -

"Guess what I found on Craigslist?"

"What?" I shouted back

"Chickens," she called out, walking into the kitchen. "Young ones too, and they're orangish colored."

"Orangish?" I inquired, rolling my eyes. "Hmm, I wonder what breed that could be?"

"It doesn't matter, there's no time because their FREE!" she exclaimed in a slightly elevated tone.

"Why are they free?" was my skeptical counter.

With a slight look of disgust, she replied "Who knows, but if I don't respond right this minute they will be GONE! FREE, did you hear me, they're FREEEEE!!"

And with a deep sigh, I conceded "Yes dear, if it makes you happy we can go look at them" and so she called the phone number, and so we went and looked, and thus it was that we eventually acquired a few new laying hens.

Sometimes it seems that no matter how hard one plans and schemes the Gods of Chaos will prevail. I had it all worked out in my structured little mind and once again she proceeded to challenge my boundaries. The plan was to pick and order new hens from the below listed birds that I had thoroughly researched and decided on. The 6-10 new additions, based on cold hardiness, egg laying abilities, size, temperament, and recommendations from other bloggers who raise chickens in colder climates were to be chosen, if available, out of the following breeds;
Ameraucana
Australorp
Buff Orpington
Chantecler
Delaware
Plymouth Rock
Red Star
Rhode Island Reds
Sussex
Wyandotte
Cochin
Russian Orloff

But no! The word "free" is like a drug to my wife and we have now been gifted with many new additions to our motley crew of laying hens. The newest hens supposedly range in age from 6 months to just over a year old and were offered on Craigslist because the owners could no longer care for them and were willing to part with the birds for free under the conditions that we provide a good home and not use their pets as stewing hens...only two of them were "orangish" colored and there were really 7 hens not 6 as the ad suggested.:) And so now we have;

Two small scrappy white Leghorns that I just adore. I would have never considered this breed but am so happy to have been talked into them as they are the neatest, busy, smartest little birds I ever did see. One of them even laid two eggs the day before yesterday...that was a surprise but apparently possible upon occasion.

A lone Red Star, such a sweet, friendly, very curious little bird, and quite smitten with our dog Rowdy whom she no doubt thinks is a rooster...he is a pretty cocky little fellow after all.

Two Buff Orpingtons, that, like the Red Star, were at least on my original list. They seem to be great birds and immediately honed in on the nest boxes and laid us a couple eggs.

And two more scraggly looking Rhode Island Reds that are as cockeyed crazy as my originals but should be a nice addition to our flock that now numbers 16.

That Mrs. H, she does like her deals and because of it we now have a larger flock that has meshed together without incident allowing us to avoid the challenge of raising baby chicks this spring. Luckily, the new gang of hens has been very submissive to our originals and no serious squabbling has taken place. The new birds are very happy as their old digs left much to be desired. The weather was nice enough the other day that they even ventured outside for a while, their first taste of freedom no doubt. Unfortunately, today's colder weather has somewhat tempered their enthusiasm for the great outdoors.

Oh, and my good wife found this half starved cat in our barn this winter too...it is sitting on my lap begging for attention as I try to type this...Ay yi yi. Meet Nikita Katerina (right), master of her domain and proprietor of the chair pictured below. She was spayed yesterday so everyone is being extra nice to her, even Spooky, our grumpy old orangish colored cat.:)

It's kind of a strange system that Mrs. H has put in place here, and one that always leaves me scratching my head wondering what the heck I just got myself into...and I wouldn't change a thing.:) As they say "Compromise, if not the spice of life, is its solidity. It is what makes nations great and marriages happy.”

Seed Saving Schedule 2011 - 2014

This is our seed saving schedule for 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014. I am posting it here as a reference for myself and am not sure that it will really be relevant to anyone else's seed saving endeavours but it does give an idea of what the core crops we grow in our garden are. While we will be growing many more plants than are listed here, the plants shown below, with the exception of those with ? marks, are the ones we consider to be most important to us and have already had good success growing and saving seed from in previous years. I am going to try to put this on a more easily understandable spreadsheet when time permits and will add the PDF link to this post at that time.

All of the plants with question marks are ones that I am still contemplating saving seed off of for various reasons. For example, basil is an intricate member of our garden but I rarely have any luck getting them to set viable seed in our short season...but will continue to try as basil seed is very expensive. Perhaps by starting them earlier and growing in pots that can be moved into the greenhouse in the fall I will have more success. We will continue to save many other seeds not on this list, but only as time and the need to do so permits.


Alliums - (annually)
Leek
Chives
Yellow of Parma
Stuttgarter - 2012?

Allium divisions and seed - (annually)
Egyptian Walking Onion
Scallions
Red of Florence Bunching Onion

Amaranth - (2 year rotation)
Hopi Red Dye - 2012

Beans - (annually)
Fava
Kentucky Wonder
Painted Lady Runner
Scarlet Emperor Runner

Beets/Chard - (3 year rotation)
Chard, mixed - 2011
Cylindrical - 2011
Crapaudine (red) - 2011
Detroit Dark Red - 2012
Mammoth Red Mangle - 2013
Yellow Eckendorf - 2013?

Broccoli - (3 year rotation)
Note - save seed late in season to avoid crossing with kale
De Ciccio - 2011
Purple Peacock Broccoli - 2012
Umpqua Broccoli - 2013

Cabbage -
Melissa ?
Red Acre?

Carrots - (3 year rotation)
Imperator - 2011
Chantenay - 2012
Danver Half Long - 2013
Nantes?

Celery - (2 year rotation)
Red Giant - 2011
Ventura - 2012
Parcel?

Chicory - (3-4 year rotation)
Italian Dandelion - 2011
Red Belgian Endive - 2012
Green Belgian Endive - 2013
Batavian Endive - 2014?
Escarole - 2014

Corn - (2-3 year rotation)
Painted Mountain - 2011
Blue Jade - 2012

Cucumbers - (2 year rotation)
Boothby's Blond -2011
National Pickling - 2011?
Homemade Pickles - 2012?
White Stallion - 2012

Eggplant - (annually)
Long Purple
Apple green?

Herbs/Flowers - (1-3 year rotation)
Epizote - 2011
Spilanthes - 2011
Nasturtium - 2011
Calendula - 2011
Cilantro - 2011
Dill - 2011
Basil - 2011?
Red/Green Shiso - 2011?

Herb Seed and Root Divisions/Propagation (Annually or as needed)
Hyssop
Echinacea
Various thyme
Various oregano
Various Sage
Lemon Balm
Mint
Spearmint
Nettle

Husk Fruit - (annually)
Ground Cherry
Green Tomatillos
Purple Tomatillos

Kale - (4 year rotation)
Note -save early to avoid crossing with broccoli
Beady's Camden - 2011
Dwarf Vates Blue Curled - 2012
White Russian - 2012
Red Russian - 2013
Lacinato Rainbow - 2013?
Dinosaur - 2014

Kohlrabi ? (see how 2010 seed performs)
Gigante

Lettuce - (2 year rotation)
Arugula - 2011
Golden Purslane - 2011
Boc Choy - 2011
Black Seeded Simpson - 2011
Bloomingsdale Spinach - 2011
Red Mustard - 2011
Oakleaf - 2011
Mache - 2011
(Dave's) Speckled Trout - 2011?
Winter Density Romaine - 2011
Red Romaine - 2012
Winter Density Mix - 2012
Cress - 2012
Salad Burnett - 2012
Chervil - 2012
Mike's Red Lettuce - 2012
French Sorrel - 2013 (every 3rd year)

Parsley - (2 year rotation)
Curled - 2011
Hamburg - 2012?

Parsnip - (annually)
Hollow Crown
Harris Model

Peas - (annually)
Afilia
Alderman
Blue Podded

Peppers - (2 year rotation)
Purple Beauty - 2011
Red/Orange Banana - 2011
Jalapeno - 2011
Yellow/Red Cayenne - 2011
Mini Red Bell - 2012
King of the north Bell?
Marconi?
Sweet Italian?

Salsify/Scorzonera - (2 year rotation)
2012

Squash/Zucchini - (3-4 year rotation)
Sugar Pie Pumpkin (pepo) - 2011
Black Zucchini (pepo) - 2011
(TC) Sweat Meat (maxima) - 2011?
Hubbard - (maxima) - 2012
Papya Pear (pepo) - 2012
Gold Nugget - (maxima) - 2013
Spaghetti (pepo) - 2013

Tomatoes - (annually as needed)
Note - keep cross pollination rate of about 1-4% in mind.

Tubers - (annually)
Dahlia
Potatoes
Sunroots
Garlic Mix

Turnip - (2-3 year rotation)
Purple Top - 2011

Nature's Candy

It was a beautiful day this past Wednesday and the snow along the river had melted away making it perfect for a late afternoon hike with the dog. One of the nice things about living in the Pacific Northwest is that even in the depths of winter one can secure a few wild edibles from the great outdoors. While our home and gardens are still under a covering of snow, a small drop in elevation and abnormally warm weather allowed us to be free from that for a time.

One of our favorite wild edibles that reaches it's peak only after cold weather has set in is that of the wild rose bushes fruit...rose hips. These little citrusy apple flavored pods are so very sweet this time of year it truly is a form of nature's candy. My wife and I like to collect rose hips in the fall and use them in her teas but my favorite way to consume them, and one that no doubt benefits us the most, is fresh from the bush they grow on. Extremely high in immune system boosting nutrition what could possibly be a better winter snack than this treasure provided from nature at no cost to us other than the time it takes to gather and chew?

The seed itself can be pressed for oil and is being studied for its medicinal properties. The young spring leaves and flowers are also quite edible.

On Storing Seed

"Alexander Stchukin died at his writing table, holding in his hand a packet of his most prized peanuts that he had hoped to send off for a grow out. The custodian of Vavilov’s many oat collections, Liliya Rodina, died of starvation, as did Dimitry Ivanov, who as his own life failed, stowed away thousands of packets of rice. … There were others as well — Steheglov, Kovalevsky, Leonjevsky, Malygina, Korzun — some who perished by starving, some riddled by sickness, others by shrapnel. Wolf, the herbarium curator, was hit by a missile shell fragment, and bled to death. Gleiber, the archivist of Vavilov’s field notes, died in the midst of those papers rather than leave his post.” ~ Pavlovsk seed and gene bank

Throughout history people have gone to extraordinary lengths to protect and store seed for the future as is depicted in the above comments from the book Where Food Comes From that tracks the footsteps of Russian seed scientist Nikolay Vavilov across five continents, amassing a collection of over 200,000 plant seeds during his lifetime. A true agricultural hero who ironically died of hunger in Siberia's Saratov prison on January 26, 1943.

One of the most important facets of seed saving is the storing of those seeds as a garden's success partially depends on the quality of the seeds that are planted. We have had great success storing our seeds in airtight glass or plastic containers, preferring glass, they are kept in a cool back room of our house. Sometimes people will add silica gel packets, grains of dry rice, or even powdered milk wrapped in a tissue paper to help absorb moisture and prolong the life of these seeds. Fortunately for us our wood heated house has very dry air so we don't normally have to use any of these desiccants.

We love using these old glass salad dressing bottles to store seed.


Temperatures right around 40°F are perfect for retaining stored seeds viability which is why you will hear of keeping seeds in the refrigerator, although I do question this a bit as it would seem to be such a humid environment for long term storage and I would definitely consider using one of the aforementioned desiccants for extended periods of refrigerated storage. Although, some seeds do require a period of cold stratification in order to break dormancy and germinate properly...certain perennial herbs, flowers, and fruit tree seeds would be a good example of this. Also, when removing the seeds from a cold area it is advisable to allow the container to reach normal room temperature before opening to prevent condensation from forming on the inside.

All of our seeds are stored on (or around:) this shelf in a dark, cool, and dry back room.

A fellow blogger also made mention of a very important point in that if you choose to freeze your seeds for long term storage it is advisable to remember that when freezing seeds the moisture content has to be exceptionally low. If there is too much moisture in the seeds they will form ice crystals which will rupture the cells and ruin the seeds. Also, I have read that one should not to use ''frost free'' freezers for seed storage unless you use very airtight containers, ones with gaskets, because they have periodic warming cycles to remove ice build-up that might evaporate the small amount of moisture that a seed does need to survive. I would love to hear others thoughts on the freezing of seeds as it is not something I have much experience with.

Storing seed is relatively easy, high temperatures, large temperature fluctuations, and humidity are the main enemies of seed, too much light, especially direct sunlight, can also be an issue. That said, even seed stored in less than ideal conditions will most likely last for a number of years. There are many different and varying thoughts on how to best store seed, the important thing is to pick the one that works best for your given conditions and go for it.:)

Please consider submitting a new or old post on the Kebun Malay-Kadazan girls blog during this "seed week" that will run from the 22nd~29th of January in which anyone interested participates by blogging about their experiences as they are related to seeds, bulbs, tubers, rhizomes or cuttings including the collecting, propagating, growing, and/or how to keep them in tip top shape. There is a "linky" to link your post to at the bottom of her blog post. Join in on her seed week so we can all learn from each others experiences.:)

This is a picture of our Painted Mountain corn, a variety that we have been growing the past couple years and seems to do well in our climate and shorter growing season. Corn seed will normally have good germination for 2 years and some of ours seems to be fine even after 3 years.

“Everyone who enjoys, thinks that the principal thing to the tree is the fruit, but in point of fact the principal thing to it is the seed. - Herein lies the difference between them that create and them that enjoy.” - Friedrich Nietzsche

Why Save Seeds?

“Be the change you want to see in the world.” ~ Gandhi


The author of the Kebun Malay-Kadazan girls blog has suggested a "seed week" from the 22nd~29th of January in which anyone interested participates by blogging about their experiences as they are related to seeds, bulbs, tubers, rhizomes or cuttings including the collecting, propagating, growing, and/or how to keep them in tip top shape. You can submit a link to her from an old post or a recent one and this is not limited to one post only. So please join in on her seed week so we can all learn from each others experiences.

My wife and I became seriously involved/obsessed with the saving of our own vegetable seed a few years ago and have experimented with collecting seed from almost every edible plant that we have grown at one time or another, mostly with great success. Because it can be, and has become, such an immense project to save all of our own seeds we have decided to focus the majority of our efforts going forward on the crops that are most important to us, the core crops that we could not live without. Vegetables like beets, parsnips, carrots, potato tubers, turnips, tomatoes, tomatillos, cucurbits, onions, beans, peas, celery, corn, peppers, lettuce and other greens like parsley, kale, and various types of chicory all make the list.

We are working on a plan to continue saving these seeds using a 2-5 year rotation so as not burden ourselves with too much at once, as has been the case the past few years, and to help avoid cross contamination of the many open pollinated varieties like cucurbits and brassicas. While we will continue to save the seed of herbs, flowers, and anything else that catches our fancy it will not be our main focus to do so. Once I finish getting the entire rotation schedule worked out on paper I will try to post it online.

My wife, bagging a Sweet Chocolate pepper flower with a muslin sack to avoid cross pollination as we grow all of our varieties so close to each other.

This chervil seed was ready to be harvested and will be saved every other year as seed older than that seems to have fairly low germination rates.

"Golly Mike, why bother with all of this when the seeds are so readily available via seed catalogues?"

Very simple, my thoughts are that to grow a plant and not know how to save it's seed is a missed opportunity to take part in that plants full life process. More than that I believe it is our right and responsibility to do so or at least, and most importantly, to have some inkling of how to do so in order to maintain our subsistence pattern lifestyle and be able to share the knowledge with future generations. I also have no wish to be under the control of the system. The system being big agribusiness with its rules, regulations and control (GMO), or at the whim of seed companies that may be out of stock, and of course I have some worries over the future availability of non-hybrid seed coupled with the ever increasing expense of it all.

As an example, something I was talking to a fellow blogger about the other day comes to mind. Every year I am in a panic when it comes to certain vegetables whose seed I have yet to start saving on a regular basis...like onion seed. I often have a real dickens of a time getting my onion seed in a timely manner regardless of how soon I order it and the varieties of storage onions that grow well for us are very limited...there's like three of them. I have started ordering a couple years worth of the seed just in case but onion seed has a pretty short term viability of around 1-2 years after which the germination rate decreases significantly. So I feel the strong need to save my own and relieve myself of this yearly allium hysteria. We want to have seed and food sovereignty.

Biennial salsify and scorzonera flower their 2nd year and one must be diligent in saving the seed lest it all float away on a windy day.

That said, I think it is "very" important to support both small and large trustworthy seed companies that will continue to provide us with all of the seeds that we do not save ourselves. Quality companies like Johnny's Select Seeds (?), Territorial(?), Fedco, Bountiful Gardens, Seed Savers Exchange (?), Ed Hume, Annapolis Valley Heritage, and many others that work so diligently to help to preserve our vegetable and herb seed diversity and availability.

“The garden seeds being dropped from the catalogues are the very best vegetable varieties we will ever see.” ~ Kent Whealy, Seed Savers Exchange

There are numerous other reasons to save your own seed, including the possibility of a plant adapting to ones specific environmental conditions over time. This is something we have experienced in our own gardens and has been especially noticeable with our peas and tomatoes becoming much less prone to disease compared to how they were many years ago, we have had no issues at all the past few seasons.

After they are processed our tomato seeds are placed on screens for a couple days until thoroughly dry. These seeds can easily last over ten years if stored properly - cool, dry, dark environment.

Believe me, I totally understand that many people just do not have the leeway for a garden full of plants bolting to seed as it would take up the entire garden area leaving no room at all for the real food crops. We are very fortunate to have enough extra ground for these projects and this post is simply an expression of my thoughts on what we will be working towards going forward as it relates to the saving of our own seed. Besides, it is very empowering, empowerment that is created by knowing that one can depend upon him or herself for their own food. As they say "He who controls the seed also controls the feed."

Valerian seed can be difficult to save as it also so easily flutters away in the breeze once mature.

These are four popular seed growing and saving books that I have collected over the years and am constantly using as references.


Another seedy book that I have yet to run down is "Saving Seeds As If Our Lives Depended On It" by Dan Jason.

Here are two excellent PDF links that cover, in fairly good detail, how to save the seed off many vegetables that are commonly grown in the average garden. ↓

Saving Vegetable Seeds in an Urban Garden

A Seed Saving Guide For Gardeners and Farmers

To learn even more check out this very informative blog on growing and saving seed called Going to Seed: Growing Organic Seed in Eastern Canada.

On the right hand side of this picture you can see (click picture to enlarge) where I replanted a small patch of cilantro but also left a bunch of the original plants tied to a stake in order to grow and produce more seed thus allowing the plant to come full circle.

This seedy row was devoted to a variety of winter density lettuce that survived the cold months.

Beets are another biennial that we overwinter in the root cellar and then replant for seed purposes. Each of the seed clumps pictured below are actually clusters that contain multiple seeds.

Rhubarb is easy to grow and save seed from but the offspring will probably differ from the parent plant...which is what makes it fun. We grew lots of baby rhubarbs this past year.

It is best to leave your carrot seed production to the professionals.:) The carrot our pro (what a ham) is holding was grown this year from a mix of seed saved in 2009 pictured below.Again, full circle. You can read more about how we save carrot seed here.

Once it is harvested and cleaned most of our seed is then put into boxes, bags, or other containers on our porch to finish drying for a few weeks after which we pack the seed away in jars or bottles and store in a cold dry back room. They say that seeds kept in the freezer may remain viable for over 50 years. We prefer to save our seeds in smaller amounts and replenish them often rather than freezing because the environment changes so quickly that I worry seeds stored for extended periods rather than being rotationally saved and replanted will not "learn" to evolve.

Let us not forget:

Humankind has not woven the web of life.
We are but one thread within it.
Whatever we do to the web, we do to ourselves.
All things are bound together.
All things connect.

~ Chief Seattle, 1854

Early 2011 Planting Schedule and Notes

Onions - Sowed in flats on 2/15 (start in January next year).
Transplanted into garden on 4/17. Next year I will plant later or grow under cover for the first month or so...too cold.

Celery - Sowed in flats on 2/23 (Start in January next year). Planted in garden on 5/6.

Peppers, Eggplants - Sowed in flats 3/4 (Start in February next year).

Tomato, Tomatillo, Ground Cherry - Sowed seed in flats on 3/8-3/18. Started re-potting tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, tomatillos, and others on 4/30.

Brassicas, including: Turnips, Kohlrabi, Broccoli, Kale, Cabbage, and Mustard were sowed in flats on 3/13.
Transplanted (test) turnips into garden on 4/9.
Transplanted kale into garden on 4/17.
Transplanted broccoli, kohlrabi, and cabbage on 5/8.

Spinach - Sowed in flats on 3/15. Transplanted to garden on 4/9.
Direct seeded more on 4/18. Direct seeded spinach starting to emerge, 5/5.

Lettuce, including various chicory and arugula - Sowed in flats 3/14.
Transplanted into garden on 4/16.

Herbs - Sowed in flats 3/18. All herbs planted in garden on 5/11.

Garlic - Planted under row cover on 4/2, removed row cover on 4/18.

Parsnips - Direct seeded on 4/10. Starting to germinate on 5/5.

Parsley - Direct seeded 4/15. Germinated on 5/15.

Belgian Endive - Direct seeded 4/15. Noticed germination on 4/29.

Fava Beans planted on 4/20. Starting to germinate 5/5.

Amish Red Gooseberry, Achilles Gooseberry, Gloire de Sablons pink Currant, Black Velvet Gooseberry, Einset Grape, and Crimson Cherry Rhubarb from Raintree nursery planted on 4/20. Crimson Rhubarb arrived in unsatisfactory condition so they sent us 3 more plants and let us keep the originals. Good customer service.:) All the berry bushes had a good root system and shoul do well.

Carrots - Direct seeded on 4/24. Germinating on 5/12.

Beets - Direct seeded on 4/24. Starting to germinate, 5/7.

Hamburg parsley - Direct seeded on 4/25. Germinated on 5/22.

Afilia peas - Direct seeded on 4/25 (and then it started to snow again). Germinated on 5/9.

Minaj Smyriou and Crandall black currants arrived in good shape from Burnt Ridge Nursery on 4/29.

5/2 - The weather finally allowed for the planting of some of our potatoes...unfortunately we were rained out and still have 4 rows left to plant. It's going to be a big potato year for us as we are shooting for 600 lbs...enough for us and the chickens.....and dog.:) Finished planting on 5/3.
Potatoes emerging, 5/15.

Planted Schubert Chokecherry sometimes called Canada Red Cherry and a black cherry tree. Also noticed all of the varieties of cherries we are growing from seed have sprouted, 5/8.

5/29 - Planted Golden Salmon berries and a Logan berry start purchased from local nursery and farmers market.