Our Subsistence Pattern

The gods were obviously conspiring against us as we "tried" to prepare for our first woodcutting mission of the season. Normally we have the whole firewood project rapped up by the end of May, we are a little behind this year... too many projects going at once. I was going to go into a whole spiel about all the issues I had with my chainsaws, truck, and other things but will spare you the dreadful details and show some pictures of todays trip instead.

This dead tree will keep us warm for over a month, providing us with almost a cord of wood.

We rolled the rounds of wood over 200' down hill to our truck waiting below.

My wife readies the wood for splitting.

Only a few more rounds to go!

The truck is fully loaded with about 1 1/4 cords of wood. Now where will I put my equipment?

We even had time to hunt for a few stakes and poles for the garden. :)

Cut, split, and stacked all before noon. Only three more trips to go... but not today, we still have some projects to finish in the gardens. I am most fortunate to have such a great helpmate.

I worry that we will someday be faced with a drought situation like the ones taking place in several other countries including parts of the United States. This has lead me to consider various water retention alternatives such as rain water storage, wide spacing of plants, deep planting and so on. While I do not practice every one of these methods daily, I do experiment with them all in order to have the knowledge and experience if the need should arise. I refer you to Throwback at Trapper Creek's blog for some excellent information and real life experience dealing with these subjects Water – harvesting, using, and protecting.

Some of our garden vegetables, once established, can withstand going without much precipitation because they have long roots that are able to seek out moisture. Carrots, parsnips, salsify, various endive, parsley, strawberry spinach, garden sorrel, etc. all seem to do really well in this situation. Many other plants can also survive and produce on very little water, with a little help. The trick, in our garden, is to plant these vegetables as deeply as possible and space them far enough apart so they do not compete with each other for water. Tomatoes and peppers are perfect for deep planting as they will root along the buried parts of their stems.

I have been playing around with the idea of growing plants with no water for a few years now. One of the best candidates for a certain experiment I have been working on has been a cherry tomato plant. No water, as in no water from me after the initial planting. A small cherry tomato plant with a good root system was chosen as it would seem to be closer to its wild South American counterparts and having a smaller fruit would, in theory, need less moisture. Each year I have saved the largest seeds off these plants and productivity seems to be increasing.

In this particular trial a hole around 3' deep is dug in an area of dry hardpacked earth. It is then filled with a bucket of raw kitchen scraps whose moisture the plants roots will reach in about a 1 1/2 months when water is most needed in our area.

A half foot of rich composted soil is then added. The plant is placed into the hole, surrounded with more rich soil, damp leaves or grass are also added to help hold in the moisture. At this point the plant receives the only water I will give it other then what, if any, mother nature provides for it.

More dirt covers the leaves and as the plant grows I continue to add leaves and dirt three or four more times during the first month until the plant has about a foot of this dirt covered mulch above the soil line. The moisture will be held in, the plants roots are deep and as they grow will eventually have access to the moist rotting kitchen waste.

Productivity is less then if it was watered regularly but our plants have grown tall and healthy producing exceptionally sweet cherry tomatoes. It is a little more effort to plant this way, but I do know that if faced with a water shortage I would still be able to grow tasty tomatoes.

I am also considering trying some small water wicking beds for certain crops on the outskirts of my garden. There is a lot of information on this creative subject at http://scarecrowsgarden.blogspot.com/search?q=water+wicking+beds.

One of the best books that I have read on the subject of growing food with little moisture and many other helpful topics is Steve Solomon's book "gardening when it counts." I highly recommend it to everyone.

Two of the lesser known root vegetables that we grow are salsify and scorzonera, these winter hardy perennials are just beginning to flower in our gardens. The salsify has a long light colored root and pretty, edible, purple flowers. Scorzonera has a dark black root and bright yellow flower heads that exude a pleasant aroma redolent of sweet chocolate... really they do.

Both roots are white inside and delicious steamed, roasted, or boiled and mashed. We don't peel ours as I think the skin, as with a potato, is most nutritious. They are both referred to as "oyster plant" but do not really seem to impart the flavor suggested in that title. They have a sweet, almost nutty taste like a sunchoke and texture similar to that of a parsnip. We sometimes eat them grated raw over a salad and also use the young leaves in early spring salads as they are one of the first greens to emerge.

I had a difficult time getting a picture of the flowers as they open in late morning and close at midday. The scorzonera in the picture above is preparing to close for a long afternoon nap.

The roots in the picture don't do the plants justice as I chose a couple of small plants. They will get much longer and at least twice as large in diameter. The roots store well covered with dirt in a root cellar but we find they are best overwintered outside in the ground. They are most interesting plants and certainly a worthy addition to one's garden.

We also grow, or I should say control the growth of, horseradish, another perennial plant used for its roots. The plant has lovely white flowers this time of year that send forth an odor that only a bee could love. The roots are white inside and depart a very strong, hot, pungent taste.

We used to savor the freshly grated root as a compliment to roast beef. Rarely eating meat anymore, horseradish has become a bit if novelty in our gardens for the time being. I am contemplating a horseradish sauce used as a dip for vegetables though. This root will lose all flavor if cooked and raw must be used right after it is grated. It does store fairly well in the refrigerator and can be grated into vinegar and stored for some time.

I originally had a difficult time getting the first two roots to take hold in our garden as they were slow to germinate. The first year I planted them nothing came up, but now that they are established all I need do is tend them properly and protect them from voles. Horseradish on the other hand is hard not to establish and spreads easily if not kept in check. All of the above roots do well in a dry climate once established. The long tap roots allow the plants to mine deeply for water making these vegetables ideal for the outskirts of the garden.

We were able to harvest 2 1/4 gallons of cilantro leaves (coriander) today. Cilantro is a delicious annual herb, member of the parsley family, and an essential ingredient in our diet that we use weekly in various salsa, quesadilla, and veggie burger recipes.

As we only allow a small area of our garden for this plant, if lucky, we are able to get three good cuttings that provide us with around 6 frozen gallons. Surprisingly, both cilantro and basil freeze very well. After cutting the leaves, preferably in the early morning while they are freshest, we mix them with a small amount of olive oil... just enough to coat the leaves. They are then packed into freezer bags and frozen for later use. The olive oil makes it really easy to separate the frozen leaves and also adds an extra flavor to the mix.

This works marvelously with both cilantro and basil, we may also try using olive oil on our frozen kale this year. Frozen basil does lose it's color but the essence remains. The trick is to use it quickly as it becomes quite limp and hard to work with once it begins to thaw. In our house basil is used for various tomato dishes and is especially good in homemade pizza sauce and on bruschetta. Frozen kale goes great in a potato and kale soup that we make in the winter when greens are hard to come by... so good.

One of the best things about having a flock of chickens is their ability to consume and produce. What I feed them is what comes out in the eggs they share with us. Here are Penelope and Baldy enjoying some broccoli starts that did not make the planting cut.

"Our peppers are planted" he says with a deep sigh of relief. We were able to get the pepper plants in the ground two weeks earlier than last year... Hot, hot, hot for a change. I thought for sure we would have a cool spring going into summer but it went from frost to 80° overnight and looks to stay that way for awhile.

We find that these worthless tomato cages work really well for pepper plants, perhaps that is what they were really intended for... there must of been some sort of mix up in the cage marketing department. Then there are the "little bit bigger" worthless tomato cages, they make a most excellent support for eggplants. Some of this year's peppers will be from seed that I saved from really nice looking organic red bell peppers at the farmers market. It will be interesting to see how they do. I have yet to save any of my own pepper or eggplant seed... but I hope to do so this year.

I was somewhat disappointed when I realized that we had forgotten to plant amaranth this year. I have been growing it for years, mostly just because I enjoy looking at it. We have yet to grow enough to use it as a food source. To my delight, last year's amaranth is coming up all over the place... this did not happen in previous years but is a most welcome surprise.

Kind of a lame post, more so than usual, but we have been going at various tasks non-stop all spring and we are beat. The garden being mostly planted, our next spare moments will be spent hunting down firewood. The good news is that I cut so much last spring that we only have to get about 5 cords this year. :)

I have been saving seed from a tall pole pea variety (Alderman) for many years now and they seem to be adapting to our growing conditions. They stay green, healthy, and productive far longer then any other pea we have grown. The one drawback being they don't climb very well, I am forever tending them as they attempt to ascend our pea fence. So this spring we are also growing an afila type bush pea for the first time and were attracted to this particular variety because they are supposed to have few leaves and many grasping tendrils. Imagine, a pea that can actually grab onto a support fence without human intervention. :)

We shall see how they do. I normally opt for pole peas as bush peas seem to develop a myriad of issues in our garden... slugs, rot, etc. The afila peas are supposed to be self supporting but I did set up a short fence for them and they are latching on like crazy. I really don't know much more about them at this point, perhaps they will do really well for us, time will tell.

We decided to take a break, escape the near record heat, and find some place to cool off. We had no interest in joining the masses at the local beach, we wanted peace, quiet, and cool exhilaration. Fortunately, we know of the perfect place that does indeed meet all the above criteria and shall remain nameless. We seem to be the only ones to ever hike into this mountain wonderland in the late spring... and will be more than happy if it remains that way. It's not the highest hill by any means but at around 6,000 feet it was a perfect place to cool off.

There was a good thirty feet of snow on top.

On the way up we were able to find a few more morels for tonight's dinner and see how the huckleberry bushes were progressing... they look great so far.

Walking through a small mountain meadow halfway to the peak.

The second leg of this hike leaves the trail over ten feet under the snow.

Wild flox overlooking natures playground.

On top of our little part of the world and, for a brief moment, free from the things of man!

Planting was put on hold for a couple days as we were forced to catch up on weeding. A great deal of time has been spent over the last couple of days removing the multitude of tiny weeds that have sprung forth in order to find any "bare" spots that needed to be replanted. Luckily, very little reseeding was necessary this spring. About 1/3 of the seeds I direct seeded were my own and the rest came from a wide variety of other sources. The only serious germination issue was with pepper seed. Of course, in a panic, I replanted so many peppers seeds that we are now faced with a glut of the plants. Last year's germination, especially with certain direct seeded crops, was a real problem thanks to bad seed from certain seed companies. This year all is well... so far. That is me in the picture below writing a list of things that need to be replanted.

So, I have a revolutionary new system for weeding that is guaranteed to work for everyone. After years of trial and error trying to find the easy way out, heavy mulching, no mulching at all, using a torch... naw. I have come up with the perfect way to weed. First bend over and pull all the little weeds close to your plants with your thumb and index finger, hoe the rest, and repeat diligently on a daily or at least weekly basis. :)

Really, weeds can be a big issue and the best way to take care of them is to spend a little time each day pulling them. I guesstimate that an average weed takes around 5-10 days to reach a size worth the effort to remove. So, for example, if I had 10 rows of crops, I would simply weed one row each day in order to stay on top of the whole weed problem. A strict weeding schedule works for us... discipline is the easiest solution to weeds that I have come across. Happy weeding!

This row of carrots has been weeded and only a few needed to be reseeded.