Late Winter Garden Update

Two fullsized ice chests stacked on one another in 20" of snow.
-February 9, 2011

Wet January and February
-March 1, 2011

After a dry and mild November and December, we've had a wet and wild January and February, including a near record 20" snowfall and wide temperature swings from -18 degrees up into the low 70's.

A day after the snowfall, we experienced -18 degree temperatures.  Northwest Arkansas is in zone 7, but we got temperatures down into zone 5!  Fortunately, the 20" of snow was on the ground and provided some insulation.  We'll wait and see what damage was done to our perennials by the extreme cold snap.

Scotch kale growing in a cold frame

Swiss chard growing in a cold frame

Despite the extreme low temperatures, the Scotch kale and Swiss chard are flourishing in the straw bale cold frame.  I am very impressed.

Daughter strawberry plants in need of transplanting

The uncovered strawberry plants suffered some freeze damage, but again the heavy snow cover insulated them through the worst of it.  They are putting on new growth and are in need of transplanting into the blocks.

Evergreen bunching onions putting on new growth

With the recent warm weather, the green onions have exploded.  Onions being a biennial plant, they should put on seed in this second year.  We will wait and see how the seed production affects edibility.

Chickens newly feathered and laying eggs again

Eggs!

During the heavy snow, the chickens mostly stayed in their house, because they couldn't get around in it.  They didn't seem to be affected by the cold much as long as they had a draft free house to huddle in.  Since coming out of their molt, the hen's egg production continues to fluctuate between 0-6 eggs per day with an average of around 3 eggs a day.  Hopefully as the days grow longer, they will pick back up to 5-6 eggs a day.

Daffodils emerging

One of the traditional signs of early spring, the daffodils are starting to come up.  With almost two full months left before our average last frost date in late April, this is concerning.  The early warm spell will cause a lot of early flowering crops (peaches, strawberries, etc.) to get going early and their blooms are likely be nipped by frost.  Could make for some light early fruit harvests this year.

Garden Planning Software (Free)

A screenshot of their preplanned "All American" garden

It's time to begin planning your garden and placing your seed orders.  I recently came across a marvelous website for those doing a square-foot garden.  It is really a great tool that I can't say enough about.  It lets you lay out your garden simply by dragging and dropping the crop to the square you wish to grow it in.  Then it tells you when and how to plant, plant spacings for a square-foot garden, when to harvest, and tips and tricks for that particular crop.  In addition to all of that, it has many very well put together preplanned gardens if you're unsure of where to put things or you just want it easy.

A screenshot example of instructions provided

(click to enlarge)

A couple of hints:

• Even when using the preplanned gardens, always rotate it so that the tallest plants are to the north and the shortest plants are to the south.
• Put the shade tolerant, moisture loving plants like lettuce to the north end of the garden.
• Once complete, print out your garden plans and use them!

I have never done business with this company, so I can't endorse them for buying supplies.  However, they are providing a valuable service to the community with this free gardening resource and were kind enough to allow me to use the screenshots above.  They also told me that they will be adding berry plantings to the online tool soon!  I added their blog to my blogroll on the right for my readers that are interested in that.

Here's the link:  http://www.gardeners.com/on/demandware.store/Sites-Gardeners-Site/default/Page-KGPJS

Enjoy!

Winter Eggs and Flock Management

Wintertime.

New feathers!

For those of you interested in starting your own flock or just learning about it, HERE is a very good article I just came across.

You'll recall from our post HERE, that as the first killing freezes of the year arrived in October, our backyard flock began the molting process.  Molting is a natural event where the birds completely replace their feathers once or twice a year.  It takes so much energy and protein to do this, that they shut off or diminish egg production.  A good rule of thumb for a backyard flock is 10 months of egg laying and 2 months molting.  Before the molt, our six birds gave us 35+ eggs per week.  During the 2 1/2 month molt, the average dropped to right at 12 eggs per week.  Now they are back into full production again.

Now down to the brass tacks discussion.  As chickens get older, they produce fewer and fewer eggs per pound of feed consumed.  Most commercial operations these days replace their flock every year to maximize production.  We plan to replace ours every two years and this seems to be a good balance of flock replacement cost and efficiency for a backyard flock.  In mid April, we will get a shipment of day-old chicks to replace our current flock.  Our current flock will lay all spring and summer and then our new flock will start laying at 5-6 months old in early October.  Once the new flock reaches full production, we will slaughter and can up our current flock to be used in soups, chickens salads, and the like.  We've found that pressure canning the meat makes these tough, old birds quite edible.  These are hard choices to make, but in the end these chickens are livestock, not pets and our suburban backyard doesn't afford us enough room to allow our older birds to stick around.

Cold Frames Revisited

In case you missed them, find our previous posts about cold frames here and here.

Swiss chard growing in January

The straw bale cold frame has performed remarkably well.  With no supplemental heating, it has sustained the cold tolerant Swiss chard and the cold hardy Scotch kale quite well through overnight temperatures down to 5 degrees.  The cold intolerant sweet basil did not make it when temperatures got into the teens.  The thick bales provide a remarkable level of insulation.  The key is to grow cold tolerant crops and when the temperature is above 30-32 degrees, remove or prop open the cover to allow more sunlight in and more importantly, to not overheat the plants inside.  When temperatures are going to be lower than 30-32 degrees, cover them over for protection.  Simple.

Shadow cast by the southern wall of the cold frame

During the short days of winter, the sun sits very low in the southern horizon.  This creates a significant shadow effect from the southern straw bales as seen in the picture above.  The crops inside need as much solar exposure as they can get this time of year if they are going to not only survive, but produce a harvest of greens for you.  So this shadow was a real problem.  I thought and thought about what to do, thinking about translucent materials for the south wall such as a greenhouse panel or glass blocks.  Both of these were too expensive.

Straw bales on the southern side rolled down and away

So, I am standing there looking at the cold frame and had a Eureka! moment.  Why not just roll the two southern bales away on sunny days (as seen above) and replace them when it gets cold.  This allows full sunshine into the cold frame with no additional cost and minimal effort.  It has really worked out well.

Lettuce with freeze damage when covered by a 1 gallon glass jar

Lettuce with freeze damage when covered by a 10 gallon aquarium

The upturned glass aquarium and jars worked within their performance envelope, but didn't have nearly the insulating properties of the straw bale cold frame.  They seemed to protect the lettuce down to 25 degrees or so, but even then any lettuce that physically touched the glass at this temperature was ruined as seen above.

Have you been using a cold frame?  I'd love to hear your experiences and suggestions in the comment section below.

Making Jerky at Home

Common ingredients for jerky and marinating jerky in bags

For us jerky addicts, the expense and preservatives associated with store bought jerky make homemade jerky an economical and healthy choice.  The fact that it is a very simple process is icing on the cake.  

Neccesary items:

Dehydrator - It needs to be able to dehydrate between 145-155 degrees and an adjustable thermostat is nice.  We use the Excalibur 9 tray, but cheaper dehydrators like this, this, and this will work in smaller batches.  With the smaller dehydrators, you will have to lay the meat on the trays instead of hanging it.  

As an alternative, I have heard of people setting their ovens to the lowest setting (180-200 degrees usually), putting the meat on the oven racks, and cracking the door with good success.  I haven't done this, but would suggest putting a cookie sheet or foil below the meat to catch drippings.

Lean, fat free meat - Wild game meat like deer, elk, buffalo etc. has worked best for us, but we've also made good jerky by looking for sales on beef cuts like flank steak (best option) or eye of round.  The key is good, lean meat.  No fat or it will taste gross and turn rancid.  Avoid dehydrating fish or poultry.

Jerky can be made is several forms:

• Whole muscle strips no more than 1/4" thick at its thickest point are our preferred style.  We do make some batches thicker (1/2"), but due to high moisture content after drying they must be kept in the freezer until we are ready to eat them. 
• Whole muscle sheets no more than 1/4" thick at its thickest point.  These must dried on trays, but otherwise are prepared the same as strips.
• Strips made from ground meat with dry ingredients mixed in.  We have no experience with these.

Spices - Let your imagination go wild here.  Soy sauce serves as the base ingredient for most jerkies, but anything can be used.  Try different things that you like.  We like original, peppered, Cajun, and teriyaki, but we've tried crazy things like coconut milk and shredded coconut (it was awful).

Some various spice suggestions (not in any order):

• Soy sauce
• Worcestershire sauce
• Teriyaki sauce
• Liquid smoke (a little goes a long way)
• Frozen orange juice concentrate
• Louisiana hot sauce
• Garlic salt
• Onion salt
• Mrs. Dash (original yellow cap or spicy red cap)
• Coarse ground black pepper
• Red pepper flakes
• Cumin
• Honey
• Brown sugar
• Lemon or lime juice

A basic recipe:

• 3 pounds lean meat cut into 1/4" strips
• 1 cup Worcestershire sauce
• 1 cup soy sauce
• 2 cap fulls Mrs. Dash original (red lid if you want it spicier)
• 1 tablespoon garlic salt
• 1 cap full liquid smoke 

1. Put cut up meat into a 1 gallon zip-lock bag.  
2. Combine all other ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly.  
3. Pour the marinade in the bag with the meat and squeeze all air out before sealing.
4. Massage the bag with your fingers to ensure that all of the meat surfaces are in contact with the marinade and then put in in the refrigerator for 24 hours.  Massage it 2 or 3 more times during the marination period to ensure even coating.
5. After 24 hours, drain the meat and pat it somewhat dry with paper towels.  At this point, sprinkle with any dry ingredients if you choose (Coarse black pepper, red pepper flakes, etc.) then put it in your dehydrator and turn it to 145-155 degrees Fahrenheit.  We hang ours from metal skewers due to ease of clean up.  Don't let meat pieces touch each other in the dehydrator.  I come in after an hour of drying and run a knife between any pieces that have stuck together.
6. It takes 4-12 hours depending on your dehydrator.  Remove meat when it is as hard as you like.  A good general guideline is when it cracks when bent, but does not snap completely in two.
7. Place the jerky into plastic bags immediately or it will continue to dry out.  Unless you dry your meat to rock hard (which I happen to like), it's a good idea to store it in the freezer until you are ready to eat it to prevent molding.  Adding salt and nitrates to the marinade can make it shelf stable while moist if you want to do that.  We prefer not to add these.

Jerky hanging and ready to be dried

Jerky hanging in the dehydrator with paper towels below

Finished jerky original recipe

Finished jerky with added red pepper flakes

Shelling Beans

Our three-year-old working hard

Splitting the dried pod reveals the beans

Towards the end of the growing season, we began leaving the largest pods on our purple-podded pole bean vines (green beans) to mature into next season's seeds.  We left the beans on the vines until the pods were good and dry.  The pods should rattle like a maraca when shaken.  

After they were dry, we brought them in and split them with our fingers over a bowl and discarded any small, discolored, or damaged beans.  A cool, dry, dark storage environment is desirable to preserve viability.  We keep ours in a labeled ziplock in the freezer.

Next year's seed crop

Weekly Gardening Outlook

This will be a continuing series where we look ahead at the coming week in gardening for the Northwest Arkansas area.

The last of the tomatoes

About 1/4 of the tomatoes have ripened thus far.  I just finished turning them into salsa.  A few went bad and had to be thrown out before they turned red and we will see what happens with the remaining green ones.


This will be the last weekly gardening outlook until next spring.  I will post here and there over the winter, so sign up for the email subscription on the right or link in with an RSS reader.  I have an idea for an interesting series in January and February.  I can' talk about it right now, but it should be interesting if it works out.


We are still only getting 1-2 eggs a day.  It' enough for us, but we aren't having eggcentric meals like we used to.  It's part of the cycle of egg raising and we are grateful for what we are getting.

Weather outlook:

-Highs around 70 and lows around 50 until Saturday.  Perfect growing weather.  Saturday it will cool down and a freeze is expected.  Minimal chance of rain through the week, 

-Ten day forecast

What's being harvested:

-Green onions

-Lettuce

-Chard (still hanging in there)

-Mint (still hanging in there)