What Are Some Tips for Successful Gardening?

[Astronuc]

I will be planting the usual bell peppers, zuchinni and tomatoes for ratatoulle. Summer squash, maybe cucumbers.

I hope I can keep the birds away from the peaches long enough to get some this year. Maybe I'll do some cauliflower, I need to put those in now though.

OK - ratatoulle - well the zuchinni and tomato reminded me of another recipe.

Caponata (also mispelled as Caponato or Capanato)

3 Tablespoons olive oil
4 celery stalks, chopped
1 medium onion chopped
4 medium eggplants, chopped into bite-sized pieces
½ cup sliced green olives
2 Tablespoons chopped or sliced garlic
4 Tablespoons tomato paste
Capers to suit
Seasoning to suit

I lifted this from a FOX TV station, but I can't make myself post the link. :shy:

In a large pan on medium heat, sauté onions and celery until tender. Add eggplant cubes and cook until tender, about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add capers and green olives just before eggplant is done. Stir in tomato paste and garlic until everything is covered. Serves four.

Another recipe -

CAPANATO (Sicilian Eggplant)

1/4 c. olive oil
2 med. eggplants, unpeeled, cut into 1 inch cubes
2 tbsp. olive oil
2 med. onions, finely chopped
1 lg. garlic clove, minced
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 tsp. salt
Pepper, to taste
2 c. stewed tomatoes, undrained and chopped
1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/2 tsp. oregano
10 black olives, chopped
2 tbsp. chopped walnuts
1/4 c. vinegar
1 tbsp. sugar

Heat olive oil and saute eggplants (use more oil if necessary). When eggplant is cooked and tender, transfer it to a dish and set aside.
In 2 tablespoons olive oil saute onions, garlic and celery until onions are soft. Return eggplant to pot and add remaining ingredients. Simmer for 15-20 minutes. Capanato should be thick but not dry. Add a little water if mixture is too dry and cook a little longer if it is too wet. Serve chilled or at room temperature. Serves 6-8.

http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1918,152191-225198,00.html


One of the ladies in the office where I work makes this and it's really good. <- that's for the caponata, not the lady, although she is attractive.

 

[Astronuc]

Caponata - a Sicilian specialty, which varies slightly from one part of the island to another, but it always contains eggplant, onion, celery, tomato and capers. It is traditionally served at room temperature.

4 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp sugar
1 onion, sliced
3 tbsp chopped fresh flatleaf parsley (to garnish)
12 black olives, pitted
2 celery stalks, sliced
1 eggplant, diced
5 plum tomatoes, chopped
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
salt - a pinch or less, or to taste

2 tbsp capers (mandatory in Sicily, but optional outside)


1. Heat 32 tablespoons of olive oil in a large, heavy-bottomed pan. Add the onion and celery and cook over low heat, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes, or until softened. Add the remaining oil with the eggplant and cook, stirring constantly, for 10 minutes.

2. Stir in the tomatoes, garlic, vinegar and sugar. Cover the surface with a circle of waxed paper and simmer for 10 minutes.

3. Stir in the olives and capers ans season with salt. Transfer the mixture to a serving dish and let cool to room temperature. Sprinkle with the chopped parsley and serve.

4. While waiting for the caponata to cool, enjoy a nice glass of wine, while sitting on the porch or veranda and watch the beach or sunset or some other nice scenery.

It is recommended to prepare caponata ahead of time (several hours) and let sit so that the strong flavors blend.

An option for non-vegetarians is to add 4 anchovies. This recipe serves 4, or one of me.

 

[Evo]

Evo, are ice weasels nice friendly guys like ferrets?

Yeah, you could pass for an ice weasel. I like ice weasels.

 

[turbo]

We just had a BBQ dinner. I came up with a new marinade last night for the chicken. I sauteed chopped onions, crushed garlic, and grated fresh ginger in peanut oil with a couple of tbs of butter for flavor, some salt and lots of black pepper. When that was browned, I shut off the gas, poured in a few ounces of dry wine, juice of a lemon, and a few oz. of honey. The chicken (skinned and cut up) marinaded for about 24 hours in that mix, and I painted the basket of chicken parts throughout the cooking. It came out really good, but (anal, as always!) I will tweak that marinade for months. My wife chipped in with a BBQ sauce for the chopped vegetables that we processed tonight, with lemon, pepper, honey, etc. It was in the mid-60's so we ate out on the deck, but it was a "dry run" with "fresh" vegetables bought from a store 5-7K miles from where the food was grown. I cannot wait for our garden to come in.

 

[Evo]

I'll plant it along the tree line and mow it down if it tries to take over the lawn. I really hope it thrives like you say.

It sends out underground runners.

I wouldn't mind having bushels of it drying in my cellar.

Just wait.

 

[turbo]

Yeah, you could pass for an ice weasel. I like ice weasels.

Thank you for the free pass into weasle-dom. Turbo might have been an ice weasel. I can tell you that he was not a soap and water weasel. He would jump into the tub with my wife every morning during her shower, but when we gave him a personal bath every month or so (with no-tears shampoo in the kitchen sink) he was unhappy, although obedient. He was a sweetie, but he did not want to have his pelt saturated.

These little guys can manipulate their environments, and are WAY smarter than animals that are much larger. Weasels, minks, martins, ferrets, and fishers (don't leave out the skunks!) are very personable little fellows and can leave cats and dogs in the dust when it come to social engineering. We had a skunk that would come to the back yard with a cat, a coon, and/or a possum, and benefited from each relationship as they fed on the food that we had left out for the birds. The skunks were invariably friendly and were never threatening. When I observed astronomically on a hill on a rented farm in the late '70's, skunks would come around quite often in the evening, and the babies would often come up right to my pant-legs, trying to see who I was - they are so cute, I still want a skunk for a pet, after having tons of ferrets over the course of a couple of decades.

 

[Evo]

We just had a BBQ dinner. I came up with a new marinade last night for the chicken. I sauteed chopped onions, crushed garlic, and grated fresh ginger in peanut oil with a couple of tbs of butter for flavor, some salt and lots of black pepper. When that was browned, I shut off the gas, poured in a few ounces of dry wine, juice of a lemon, and a few oz. of honey. The chicken (skinned and cut up) marinaded for about 24 hours in that mix, and I painted the basket of chicken parts throughout the cooking. It came out really good, but (anal, as always!) I will tweak that marinade for months. My wife chipped in with a BBQ sauce for the chopped vegetables that we processed tonight, with lemon, pepper, honey, etc. It was in the mid-60's so we ate out on the deck, but it was a "dry run" with "fresh" vegetables bought from a store 5-7K miles from where the food was grown. I cannot wait for our garden to come in.

When did you say I could move up there?

 

[turbo]

It sends out underground runners.

Just wait.

How deep do the runners go? If I have to corral peppermint, I will take precautions. I wish I did not have to take such precautions to prevent the growth of tomatos, hot peppers, green beans, etc!

 

[turbo]

When did you say I could move up there?

I think I said you could stay here when you can split at least 1 cord a day of firewood, but due to the overwhelming response, you may have to committ to splitting AND stacking at least 1 cord a day.

 

[Evo]

I think I said you could stay here when you can split at least 1 cord a day of firewood, but due to the overwhelming response, you may have to committ to splitting AND stacking at least 1 cord a day.

Do I get a weasel?

 

[Evo]

How deep do the runners go? If I have to corral peppermint, I will take precautions.

You do have to take precautions, I will look up some references later.

 

[Moonbear]

How deep do the runners go? If I have to corral peppermint, I will take precautions. I wish I did not have to take such precautions to prevent the growth of tomatos, hot peppers, green beans, etc!

Of course, how bad could it be if peppermint took over your lawn? Wouldn't it be lovely to have everything smelling fresh and minty when you walked across the yard? Friends of mine had a bench out in the middle of a plot of thyme which was wonderful...you'd get the fresh thyme smell as you walked to the bench, and were just surrounded by it. Absolutely heavenly. Of course, in their case, it was an island in the center of a circular driveway, so it couldn't escape very far.

 

[turbo]

Evo, you can have a weasel if you can catch one! (pop)

 

[turbo]

Of course, how bad could it be if peppermint took over your lawn? Wouldn't it be lovely to have everything smelling fresh and minty when you walked across the yard? Friends of mine had a bench out in the middle of a plot of thyme which was wonderful...you'd get the fresh thyme smell as you walked to the bench, and were just surrounded by it. Absolutely heavenly. Of course, in their case, it was an island in the center of a circular driveway, so it couldn't escape very far.

Wow! how many aromatic perennials could I get to "fight it out" over on the side lawn? I could jump in there and roll around like like a cat in a patch of catnip!

 

[hypatia]

I took the top 18 inches of a plastic garbage can and sunk it into the ground to plant mint in. It works really well.

 

[turbo]

OK, I'm no spring chicken, but I didn't expect to be this sore tonight. I had to satisfy my urge to work in the garden, so I bought, loaded, unloaded, and spread by hand 400# of composted cow manure, 100# of organic fertilizer and a few small bags of sulfur. The jerk clerks at the store didn't offer to help me load my truck, nor did they come outside to make sure I only loaded the 10 bags of manure that I paid for. What is this world coming to?

When my tiller engine is rebuilt (OK, I just have to know what a really nice cast-iron Horse with a really nice cast-iron Tecumseh engine can do!) I am going to town. Actually I am staying at home and I have no intention of going to town (avoiding the ~1500 folks who live here). I intend to add 4-5 big bales of compressed peat moss to bring up the organic content of the soil. The previous owner of this place never took care of the garden spot. He simply planted plants started at local greenhouses, and flogged them along with Miracle-Gro...that is not gardening.

My dad started his tomatoes well after we did last year, and while we got a fair yield from the many spindly plants we had, he was swamped with tomatoes from half as many plants and the plants were so big it was tough to pull them out at year's end after we harvested the last of the green tomatoes. Of course, he has a buddy that he plays poker with every week with a nice big tractor and a dump truck who will gladly bring in a load of old rotted manure and till it - no charge. The soil in his garden is fluffy and black. It's easy to weed and it holds water wonderfully. It will take a few years, but this garden spot will get that way eventually.

 

[turbo]

My wife and I have been making up a list of the seeds, seedlings, etc that we want to buy for this growing season. We are concentrating on vegetables that give a very high yield for the area required to grow them. What do you grow in your own gardens that give you a lot of usable/preservable food for the investment in space? I'm going to offer my dad to till/weed his garden space to get extra growing space in his rich-soil plot - he's 80 and is scaling back his garden to tomatos, cucumbers, squash, etc and I want to grow much more. If you've got really nice organic-rich soil available at 45 degrees N, what would you grow?

 

[Astronuc]

Yesterday, I relocated my second rhubarb plant and divided it into three new plants.

This is for ZapperZ - I just added my 7th blueberry bush - a highbush, Elliot which produces fruit late season. I bought at a local nursery but it comes from Virginia Berry farm. www.virginiaberryfarm.com

There are four new blackberry canes, but I hope for a couple more. Propagation is finally working.

We are still getting very cool night - frost two nights ago, and near freezing air the last two nights.

 

[BobG]

I don't know how many PFer's garden, but I have done gardening ever since I could walk. My father and my maternal grandfather both gardened. I helped my dad in the garden, mostly planting, watering and weeding (and harvesting) at first. When I was old enough to handle a shovel, I would help cultivate.

The first four years of childhood, we lived in rural areas, so gardening was quite natural. My father was a minister with a low salary, so the garden provided fresh fruit and vegetables for low cost.

Anyway, I have always enjoyed gardening, which for me is a spiritual experience. I use organic methods without herbicides or pesticides, in favor of natural insects and manual methods.

As of now, the perennials - Blueberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, Strawberries and Rhubard have come back to life. I was pleased to find that my meager efforts at propagating the blackberries seem to be finall working. I have done it incorrectly for 2 years, so I am hopeful now that they will finally take off. The raspberries need no help in this regard.

I am preparing one plot for a vegetable garden - my wifes tomato plants and lettuce. I will add some hot pepper plants.

I am preparing another plot for an herb garden for my wife.

Then I will be preparing a terraced area on the back hill - I am thinking tomatos, squash, zucchini, and whatever hits my fancy.

Just out of curiosity, how much does it cost you to grow a tomato?

Or, is that a bad question to ask? The $64 Tomato (How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden)

(I have to be honest. I've never calculated how much I spend making home-made ice cream in a hand cranked bucket, either. It's an experience, not an economic exercise. Nor does it bother me that I spent $160 for a Chemical Engineering slide rule when a $105 TI-86 could do the job nearly as well.)

 

[Astronuc]

Just out of curiosity, how much does it cost you to grow a tomato?

Or, is that a bad question to ask? The $64 Tomato (How One Man Nearly Lost His Sanity, Spent a Fortune, and Endured an Existential Crisis in the Quest for the Perfect Garden)

(I have to be honest. I've never calculated how much I spend making home-made ice cream in a hand cranked bucket, either. It's an experience, not an economic exercise. Nor does it bother me that I spent $160 for a Chemical Engineering slide rule when a $105 TI-86 could do the job nearly as well.)

Right now, I buy a plant for less probably $0.50-0.60/plant, add a few cents of fertilizer, and get several $'s of tomatos per plant. We have been using our own compost for years and that is where the cost savings come originate.

Same with the berries.

In fact, now all our plants produce several dollars worth of produce for $1-2 dollars worth of investment.

 

[turbo]

Just out of curiosity, how much does it cost you to grow a tomato?

A couple of bucks buys a lot of seeds. Start the seeds in peat pots with potting soil (OK, you're out a couple more bucks, now), and when the risk of frost is low, transplant your seedlings to the garden. I paid about $100 for 400# of composted cow manure and 100# of organic fertilizer to beef up the soil in my 1500 ft² garden, and the tomato plants will take up probably 5% of that, so we're still not quite up to a $10 investment for all the tomato plants. We will probably transplant the best 20 or so plants and give the remainder to friends. Assuming that each plant yields 50 tomatoes, the harvest would be 1000 tomatoes with a cash outlay of a penny each. Of course, you have to weed the garden, water the plants, tie up the vines as they bear fruit, etc, but that's gardening. Fresh vine-ripened tomatoes are nothing like the stuff you find in the produce section. Even if they can get the tomatoes from farm to store very quickly, they generally concentrate on varieties that have a long shelf-life, resist bruising, etc, NOT the varieties that taste the best or produce the best flesh for making sauces.

 

[Astronuc]

Even if they can get the tomatoes from farm to store very quickly, they generally concentrate on varieties that have a long shelf-life, resist bruising, etc, NOT the varieties that taste the best or produce the best flesh for making sauces.

No kidding! I can't believe what they sell in local stores.

May tomatoes are way better than any I can buy in the supermarkets.

Also, there are a few community garden coops in our area, and under the supervision of a master gardener, they produce some really good fruit and vegetables! The gardens are always booked out, i.e. more people want to participate than can.

As for tomatoes, the best year I had was about 15 years ago. Four plants produced about about 8 grocery sacks worth of tomatoes, and I used very little fertilizer. I was able to pick several dollars worth of tomatoes each day, and we gave away bags of tomatoes.

 

[turbo]

No kidding! I can't believe what they sell in local stores.

I think the absolute worst ones are a variety called "high-pack" - the square-sided tomatoes with cardboard flesh and watery juice. Those are the tasteless tomatoes that you find in plastic trays wrapped in cellophane. Even the pricey vine-ripened "cluster" tomatoes in the stores are crap compared to what our garden produces. We will still have a danger of frost until about the last week of May, but I am tempted to put in a couple of rows of peas, just in case we dodge that bullet. They tolerate cold pretty well, absent a hard frost.

 

[Integral]

I was pleased to find that my meager efforts at propagating the blackberries seem to be finally working.

LOL, In our area it requires massive effort to stop the Blackberries from propagating. A few years back a co-worker actually PLANTED some blackberries! I was aghast! It was beyond conception that someone would do that. Once they get started there is no stopping them, they take over. It is a continual battle to stop them, there is no controlling them, kill them or live in a blackberry bramble! If I want blackberries I stop in any unmaintained field and pick to my hearts content.


Our strawberries are in full blossom, we should start eating them in a week or so. When we get back I will but some tomatoes in the ground. I am not much of a gardener, but I do like fresh strawberries and tomatoes, the only way to get them is to grow them.

 

[Loren Booda]

I recall that decades ago practically the only plant to survive the human sludge process from home and through our waste treatment plant was the humble tomato.

 

[Astronuc]

LOL, In our area it requires massive effort to stop the Blackberries from propagating. A few years back a co-worker actually PLANTED some blackberries! I was aghast! It was beyond conception that someone would do that. Once they get started there is no stopping them, they take over. It is a continual battle to stop them, there is no controlling them, kill them or live in a blackberry bramble! If I want blackberries I stop in any unmaintained field and pick to my hearts content.

Oregon is the leading blackberry production region in the world! from North American Bramble Growers Association.

We have wild brambles, probably a type of blackberry but the fruit is small and few.

The soil where I am growing them is rather poor (mostly clay over a rock outcrop), so I have had to amend the soil, and I still have more to do.

I'd like to buy some property further north where the soil is much better.

 

[turbo]

I'm going to help the wild blackberries on my property with some organic fertilizer and and some elemental sulfur. The crop last year was good - I could get at least a quart a day off our property, and I think it could be better with some help. We had to share with a black bear, but he did me a favor - one very cold night (40F or so) he came to the patch near the house and ate that huge nest of white-faced hornets that had been making it inadvisable to harvest most of that patch. The nest was right in the middle of the patch about a foot off the ground. Those guys are pretty aggressive - the bear just waited until it was pretty cold out before he tackled them, probably to make sure they were kind of torpid.

 

[Astronuc]

I'm going to help the wild blackberries on my property with some organic fertilizer and and some elemental sulfur. The crop last year was good - I could get at least a quart a day off our property, and I think it could be better with some help. We had to share with a black bear, but he did me a favor - one very cold night (40F or so) he came to the patch near the house and ate that huge nest of white-faced hornets that had been making it inadvisable to harvest most of that patch. The nest was right in the middle of the patch about a foot off the ground. Those guys are pretty aggressive - the bear just waited until it was pretty cold out before he tackled them, probably to make sure they were kind of torpid.

Did you get a picture of the bear!? That is so cool! We have bears nearby, but to get to my place, they have to go through several subdivisions, so they would like be spotted and either captured or killed.

The bears in our area tend to stay in the hills, which are about 5-6 miles east or about 20 miles west, across the river. We did have yearling in the local city, and a police officer panicked and killed it.

We do have foxes and coyotes. A few years ago, my wife found a baby fox asleep in our backyard. We're not sure what happened, but it must have been left during a transfer between dens. Perhaps the mom would have returned (?). My wife found an wild animal specialist who just happened to have another baby fox, and so she collected our baby. Apparently juvenile foxes need to be raised with other juveniles for normal development. Seems to be a commonality with dogs, foxes and wolves.

 

[turbo]

Did you get a picture of the bear!? That is so cool! We have bears nearby, but to get to my place, they have to go through several subdivisions, so they would like be spotted and either captured or killed.

I have not seen the bear yet, but from his/her tracks, I would estimate it's about 250-300#. I haven't seen any small tracks accompanying the big ones, so I assume it's a "he". We have a ton of wildlife here. Quite a few times last summer a doe would bring her twins to sleep on our front lawn. I would go out to get the paper and see a large kidney-shaped depression in the lawn with no dew in it, and two little ones next to the big one. We have apple trees on the lawn, and despite the potential problems with insect pests, I leave the drops for the deer. I got a couple of sprinklers with motion detectors to scare the deer away from the garden, so they deserve some apples. They got my best habanero plant last year before the scarecrows arrived, though. That was a big bush that my sister-in-law started indoors, and it was loaded with blossoms. They also trimmed all the parsley and some other herbs. There was a fair-sized set of tracks in the garden and some smaller ones, so it's a pretty good bet that it was Mom and the twins.

Saturday morning, there was a wild turkey hen on the front lawn and one day last summer a great blue heron landed out there, walked around a bit, then cruised out back to the pond to hunt frogs. The migratory birds are coming through in waves right now we are inundated with white-throated sparrows, goldfinches, and purple finches - all really talented singers. The chipping sparrows, phoebes, pine siskins and robins have already been through and have established themselves in breeding areas. The year-round guys (tufted titmouse, chickadee, nuthatches, woodpeckers, mourning doves) are all here, too. It sounds like a jungle out there, including some really neat percussion - the drumming of a ruffed grouse sounds like an old tractor starting up, and the pileated woodpeckers make a heck of a racket hammering on dead branches.

 

[Astronuc]

I have been hearing a lot of woodpeckers lately. I think that's an indication that the forests around here are stressed. We had a Pileated woodpecker visit us last fall. He was a big one - probably about 12+ inches (>30 cm).

During the winter we had a Red-bellied woodpecker and several pairs of downy and hairy woodpeckers.

Here's my woodpecker thread - http://www.everything-science.com/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,82/topic,6677.0

We have had several female wild turkeys in the yard with a dozen or more chicks.

The deer weren't too bad this winter, but we surrounded some of our vulnerable evergreens anyway.

I found another new blackberry can, so that makes 5 at least. I might double the yield this year.

 

[turbo]

I have been hearing a lot of woodpeckers lately. I think that's an indication that the forests around here are stressed. We had a Pileated woodpecker visit us last fall. He was a big one - probably about 12+ inches (>30 cm).

Our pileateds are at least as large as crows, and the crows in this region tend to be large. We have downies, hairies, northern three-toed, black-back three-toed, flickers, sapsuckers, red-headed, and red-bellied here. When you hear the tap-tap sound, youve got to get the binoculars on them pretty quick, unless you already know their sound. We had a really bad ice storm 8 years ago that killed or damaged countless millions of trees - the bugs moved in and the woodpeckers are making a huge comeback. We must never again allow timber companies to appy insecticides to combat short-term insect infestations. If we allow nature to take its course, the birds will pull us through.

During the winter we had a Red-bellied woodpecker and several pairs of downy and hairy woodpeckers.

Here's my woodpecker thread - http://www.everything-science.com/component/option,com_smf/Itemid,82/topic,6677.0

Neat!

We have had several female wild turkeys in the yard with a dozen or more chicks.

The deer weren't too bad this winter, but we surrounded some of our vulnerable evergreens anyway.

I ride a motorcycle and I have to be really careful on our road. It doesn't matter how heavy and stable your bike is (Softail in my case) - catching a 20+# bird in the face will clean you off the bike and may kill you.

I found another new blackberry can, so that makes 5 at least. I might double the yield this year.

I was the only person in my family that loved blackberries, so finding that there are abundant canes on this land was a real bonus when we bought it. There are clumps with hundreds of canes of raspberries and blackberries and I am thinking of logging the trees shading them for firewood, and for increased berry production. My dad has some nice raspberry bushes on his property, but they cannot begin to compare with the intense flavor of the wild berries on our woodlot. The berries are not as sweet as his, but the flavors are so intense that just a few crumbled berries added to a tossed salad completely transforms it. I'm thinking about making up a raspberry vinegarette salad dressing and canning it for use during the next garden season, when the lettuces, chards, radishes, etc have come in but we don't yet have cucumbers, tomatoes, etc.

It's almost time to pick fiddleheads! They are immature bracken ferns that are all curled up when they emerge from the root-stock, looking like the carved scroll on the head of a fiddle. This is free food, and it is the nectar of the gods. Both sides of my family boast native american blood and in Maine, this is a staple food for the indians. Families sometimes closely-hold the location of prime fiddlehead patches for very long times, although the very best sites usually get found out through word-of-mouth. I have to start cruising the wetlands on my property to see if we have a decent crop coming up, but I expect to visit the traditional sites, too. The valleys here are steep, and based on the air temperature and the flood levels, some areas can produce harvests well before others.

 

[Astronuc]

I was the only person in my family that loved blackberries, so finding that there are abundant canes on this land was a real bonus when we bought it. There are clumps with hundreds of canes of raspberries and blackberries and I am thinking of logging the trees shading them for firewood, and for increased berry production. My dad has some nice raspberry bushes on his property, but they cannot begin to compare with the intense flavor of the wild berries on our woodlot. The berries are not as sweet as his, but the flavors are so intense that just a few crumbled berries added to a tossed salad completely transforms it. I'm thinking about making up a raspberry vinegarette salad dressing and canning it for use during the next garden season, when the lettuces, chards, radishes, etc have come in but we don't yet have cucumbers, tomatoes, etc.

I like mixed berries (blueberry, raspberry and blackberry) with heavy cream or vanilla ice cream. I also like berry cobler.

It's almost time to pick fiddleheads! They are immature bracken ferns that are all curled up when they emerge from the root-stock, looking like the carved scroll on the head of a fiddle. This is free food, and it is the nectar of the gods. Both sides of my family boast native american blood and in Maine, this is a staple food for the indians. Families sometimes closely-hold the location of prime fiddlehead patches for very long times, although the very best sites usually get found out through word-of-mouth. I have to start cruising the wetlands on my property to see if we have a decent crop coming up, but I expect to visit the traditional sites, too. The valleys here are steep, and based on the air temperature and the flood levels, some areas can produce harvests well before others.

Cool! Do you have Ostrich Fern Fiddlehead
(Matteuccia struthiopteris), or just bracken ferns? We have a growth of ferns (I think bracken), so I'll check them out. I didn't know they were edible. At my parents first house, we had patches of fern around the house.

http://www.tracksandtrees.com/articles/fiddlehead.html

 

[turbo]

Cool! Do you have Ostrich Fern Fiddlehead
(Matteuccia struthiopteris), or just bracken ferns? We have a growth of ferns (I think bracken), so I'll check them out. I didn't know they were edible. At my parents first house, we had patches of fern around the house.

http://www.tracksandtrees.com/articles/fiddlehead.html

They are the Ostrich Ferns, I think. We tend to lump them together as a group, but the ferns with the the black or reddish hairs on them are avoided at all costs, and for some reason are called "brakes". They are bitter and inedible. The time to pick fiddleheads is just a little after the skunk cabbage comes out and before the Stinking Benjamins (trilliums) flower, although fidleheads can be harvested earlier or later than these rough guidelines depending on which side of the river they grow, how high the spring run-off has gotten, etc. When I was a kid, my dad and I would pick several pecks an evening for weeks, take them home and clean them, and mom would blanche and freeze them, ready for the next night's harvest. We ate a LOT of fiddleheads over the winter. There is nothing like pan-fried potatoes and steamed fiddleheads to accompany venison or brook trout.

 

[BobG]

Yeah, you could pass for an ice weasel. I like ice weasels.

Somehow, that comment makes your signature seem very disturbing.

(Yeah, I'm pretty slow. )

Edit: And turbo-1's a pervert for stalking people pinned underneath snowmobiles.

 

[turbo]

Edit: And turbo-1's a pervert for stalking people pinned underneath snowmobiles.

You've got to take 'em where you find 'em. If you're going to be all high and mighty and not take advantage of the ones that are trapped and helpless, you're missing a big demographic. Go, ice weasels!

 

[turbo]

I like mixed berries (blueberry, raspberry and blackberry) with heavy cream or vanilla ice cream. I also like berry cobler.

Here is something you can try. We freeze wild blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries throughout the seasons. My wife makes granola, and many mornings she takes a small dish of granola to work, and fills a small dish with a mix of the frozen berries. By noon-time the berries have thawed, but are still cool, and she mixes them with the granola for a nice lunch.

 

[turbo]

I just took a hike out back - no fiddleheads on the property, unless they are going to sprout a bit late. There are lots of animal tracks in the soft dirt/mud - the bear made it through the winter and there seems to be quite a few deer around. The apple trees are sprouting leaves, as are the raspberry and blackberry canes. Spring is finally here. No hummingbirds, yet, but we have the feeders out to welcome the early-birds. We want them to stay and pollinate the fruit trees and vegetables in case we have a cold spring - the honey bees came out late last year, well after the apple trees had blossomed.

 

[Astronuc]

Well, the ferns look a bit thin at the moment. I think part of it is the relatively dry weather for the past 10 weeks - mostly dry, but punctuated by heavy rains.

I picked one fiddlehead and tasted it. It was pretty good, but I am not sure if it is edible - if I stop posting for awhile, then we can assume it wasn't edible.

The deer and other critters are roaming again. In our neighborhood, several have been hit by cars. The blueberries are flowering, but the raspberries and blackberries are still a couple of weeks away. Fortunately it's raining at the moment.

The goldfinches and purple finches are back. They, of course, prefer thistle seed. The titmice and chickadees are busy as usual. And we have a couple of nuthatches dropping in.

I think I spotted a small hawk (like a merlin or Cooper's hawk) zipping through the yard. He flew toward me as I looked up, then right overhead and out of the yard.

We've had peregrine falcons in our yard before, and I watched as one brought down a dove about 20 feet away from me. Somewhere I have some pictures.

 

[turbo]

We've had peregrine falcons in our yard before, and I watched as one brought down a dove about 20 feet away from me. Somewhere I have some pictures.

Neat! I'd like to see those.

A few winters ago, in the early spring, I heard a nasty "thud" on our sliding glass door and ran outside in T-shirt and jeans to find a female Merlin lying in the snow. I picked her up and held her to my chest to warm her. In a few minutes, she started to blink and move her head a bit. I positioned her feet over my right hand and braced her with my left until she could perch on her own (OK, it hurt a little, bur Merlins aren't that big) and after a while she looked over at me and made a little "panic" noise and struggled to fly to a branch in the hemlock just a few feet away. For the next 15-20 minutes or so, she composed herself (and studiously ignored the Pine Siskin that she had killed before hitting the door, although I put it right next to her feet on the branch), and she eventually flew off to the pine grove down the road. She harvested quite a number of songbirds from around our feeder in the next couple of days.

Peregrines are still rare here in central Maine, despite very successful repopulatin programs on the coast. I like hawks in general, but love the whole falcon family. They are perfect aerial predators. Ospreys and Bald Eagles are plentiful here - it is great to watch them catch fish out of the rivers.

A few years ago, I was heading to my friend's camp as a passenger in his truck (he was at the time the chief of the Maine Warden Service) and we saw an immature broad-winged hawk out in the road. The bird was not quite fully fledged and apparently was out of the nest due to early exhuberance in its flapping exercises. My friend went to get some gloves while I stood guard over the fledgling, and when he came back, I captured the bird's wings against its body (all the time, very happy that he had brought back leather gloves and not cotton, because I was still getting pinched pretty good through the leather) while he traced a stone wall back into the woods. Sure enough, the cries that we had been hearing were from the parents, not 100 ft from the road, and I lugged junior to a place under the nest site and put him on the stone wall where his parents could see him. We recruited an old friend of the family to take some raw hamburg, turkey, etc to the end of the stone wall for the next week or so and leave it for the fledgling and/or the parents to find. We are hopeful that the fledgling survived with our help - no way to know for sure, though. You do what you can.

 

[Loren Booda]

I have worked as a volunteer at my local nature center for twenty years, often feeding raptors thawed-out "mousicles" (control mice frozen at NIH). We have taken care of various nonrehabilitatible Great Horned owls, Barred owls, Screech owls (my indoor buddy "Screech" being one of them), a Kestrel (another good friend, "Estelle"), Red-Tail hawks (one of whom holds our age record at over 22 years). I hear that the Great Horned, with fierce beak and needle-sharp talons, has the ability to break a man's hand by racheting its grip.

In nearby Falls Church is the Raptor Conservancy, run by Kent Knowles, who either rehabilitates and releases raptors, or finds appropriate homes for them. This Sunday they will probably put representive raptors on display at our park's Open House. Not bad for a semi-urban area.

 

[turbo]

I have worked as a volunteer at my local nature center for twenty years, often feeding raptors thawed-out "mousicles" (control mice frozen at NIH). We have taken care of various nonrehabilitatible Great Horned owls, Barred owls, Screech owls (my indoor buddy "Screech" being one of them), a Kestrel (another good friend, "Estelle"), Red-Tail hawks (one of whom holds our age record at over 22 years). I hear that the Great Horned, with fierce beak and needle-sharp talons, has the ability to break a man's hand by racheting its grip.

In nearby Falls Church is the Raptor Conservancy, run by Kent Knowles, who either rehabilitates and releases raptors, or finds appropriate homes for them. This Sunday they will probably put representive raptors on display at our park's Open House. Not bad for a semi-urban area.

That's great! I would volunteer my time to work at such a center. Maine is pretty rural, and there isn't an equivalent rescue service here - nor may we need something that elaborate. The hawks and owls are doing OK nowadays. Years ago, I went to work for a training company in Columbia MD, and when the VP's very chesty secretery mentioned that she was a bird-watcher, I told her that we had nesting pairs of Golden Eagles in Maine. She immediatley "straightened me out", telling me that the Golden Eagles cannot nest in Maine, since they are Western birds. What a loon! I have seen these birds here for over 40 years, and there is a poorly hidden (by the state) nest site that is visible from the Golden Road (north of Moosehead Lake) that has been public knowledge for some time.

 

[turbo]

Spring is officially here! Yesterday we picked up a 25# bag of Vidalia Onions (annual Rotary Club charity), we got our first spear of asparagus and ate it raw (yum!), the tadpoles have hatched in the little (but deep) pond in the back yard, and the 10-12 Dace that I put in there last year seem to have survived the winter well and are snacking on the tadpoles and bugs. Last but not least, the alpha male ruby-throated hummingbird showed up yesterday and has reclaimed his territory. He is a feisty little thing. Since we still have migratory birds straggling through, I have left a couple of feeders out for them with black-oil sunflower seeds, and two of the hummingbird feeders are a bit close to the seed feeders (we like to have them near windows so we can watch) and a chickadee did something that ticked him off. That little ruby-throat gave a nasty high-pitched snarl and chased the chickadee all over the front yard, attacking him every time he tried to light. He has fed quietly from a feeder near another seed feeder that has had goldfinches, purple finches, and nuthatches. Maybe the chickadee called him a shiny little show-off sissy...

In another week or two, other hummingbirds will show up and he'll have his hands full getting a mate and keeping all the other hummingbirds out of "his" yard. Summer is a never-ending series of dogfights. I'm glad they don't weight 10-20 pounds - I wouldn't dare to go outside. As it is, that little peanut of a bird buzzes me when I'm cleaning/refilling "his" feeders.

I got my Troy-Bilt Horse back from the shop Friday with a totally rebuilt motor. What a dream to till with. 4-5 passes on well-established turf, and I have an herb garden all ready to seed. The guy we bought this place from thought that whenever things weren't doing well in the garden, that he should lime the soil. What a bonehead! Lime and Miracle-Gro...after having soil tests done by the extension service, I have added 400# of composted cow manure, 100# of organic fertilizer, about 20# of elemental sulfur, and another 400# of peat moss. Now, it actually feels like soil, and I should have the pH back down where it ought to be. This year, we are going to space the rows about 30" apart, so I can get the Horse through every couple of days, and we are going to make the rows into wide beds - instead of one skinny single-file row of swiss chard, for instance, we will have 4 or 5 closely spaced rows together, making a nice full bed. We're going to try this with nearly all the row vegetables, leaving more room for the bushy tomatoes, peppers, etc.

NOTE: last year, we tried freezing some Swiss Chard - just blanche the greens, bag 'em and freeze. They were absolutely the best frozen greens we have ever had. This year, we're planting a lot more chard - if you cut and process only the mature leaves, leaving some smaller ones, they will continue to grow and produce greens all season, right up until a hard frost.

 

[Astronuc]

A 7th blackberry cane has emerged.

I planted some garlic which had sprouted.

My blueberries seem to be doing well. I just planted the 7th bush.

And the rhubarb plant, which I divided and transplanted seems to be recovering.

Meanwhile, this morning I saw the little hawk which has been hanging around our neighborhood. I think it's a Cooper's hawk although it is similar to a Short-shinned Hawk, but Cooper's are supposed to be more common in our area.

Haven't seen any hummers. I used to get up to Rocky Mountain National Park occasionally, and we camped at one spot where there were dozens of ruby throated hummingbirds. One male used to hover at tree top and swoop down on any trespassers. Those little guys were fast.

 

[turbo]

Today, my wife and I gathered at least a bushel of fiddleheads. They are the penultimate spring greens here, and if you blanche and freeze them, you can get through the winter on them, too. It's nice to walk through the woods in the spring to harvest them. You are surrounded by violets, dog-tooth violets, Stinking Benjamins (Trilliums), skunk cabbage, and lots of other pretty spring growth, including black cherry blosssoms. The smells and sights on the way to the traditional picking areas is an important part of the experience. I sat outside on the deck for hours tonight cleaning the fiddleheads while my wife took them inside, rinsed, blanched, and froze them. We're all set for the next year. (I wish I could pick a bushel of wild blackberries, raspberries, or blueberries in a day and accomplish the same!) Those take a bit more perseverence.

The apple trees have budded, and the hummingbirds are perching in them, waiting for the action to begin. We have a good contingent of bumblebees in place, and with the hummingbirds, it will not matter if we have a weak showing of honey-bees this year. The bumblebees and hummingbirds are hard workers, and we will have a nice crop of fruit this year, if I can manage the water and nutrients properly. I joined the arbor day society this year and have bought several varieties of cherry, pear, apple, plum, and peach trees, and I have taken out a diseased oak, and a blue spruce in preparation for their arrival. Our front lawn will not be a lawn, but a nice orchard, providing benefits to the insects, birds, deer, and ourselves. I can't imagine spending tons of money to grow a pretty lawn, when you can raise fruit trees (with some grass in between) and have shade, food, sound isolation from the traffic, and improve the local habitat for birds and animals.

 

[Astronuc]

Take pictures of those hummers!

 

[turbo]

Take pictures of those hummers!

It's hard, since I have a digital camera with a slow shutter response and those guys can stop in and "fill up" in a matter of seconds, then fly off to attack an enemy (real or perceived). These little rascals are mean and they are busy. I might be able to get you a picture of the alpha female at the feeder, because the male protects her and let's her load up on the sugar. One of the old apple trees on the edge of our property has already blossomed, so the dynamic may shift for a while until blossoms on the the trees on the front lawn open up.

 

[Astronuc]

I have a similar problem with hummingbird moths. They hover and flitter.

But I zoom in and use a feature on the digital camera which enables a high shutter speed for moving targets, which I think is about 1/350 or 1/500. Sunlight helps too. I don't think I have tried a flash, but even the flash might be too long. The wings are blurred.

We are planning to add flowering plants which are supposed to be attractive to hummingbirds.

 

[turbo]

We are adding several kinds of bee-balm and bergamot to encourage the hummingbirds and bees to stay around and pollinate our fruits and vegetables. Mom and I gardened like this 40+ years ago and it works.

 

[Astronuc]

We are going to plant bee balm, and I'll have to look into bergamot. We have a variety of buddleia davidii, which were very successful in attracting butterflies and bumblebees, and the odd honey bee, as well as the hummingbird moths.

 

[turbo]

One of my wife's sisters has some red bee balm that we will divide and transplant. I have joined the Arbor Day Foundation and have a couple dozen ornamental and fruit trees on the way. I am hoping that the fruit trees (with a few ornamentals) will keep the hummingbirds, bumblebees, and honeybees concentrated on our place, and that will in turn keep them focussed on our vegetable garden. Some of the blossoms on the older apple tree on the eastern edge of our lawn have already opened, making the hummers and bumbles happy - it should get fun here in the next week or so.