Posted on 11/05/2022 7:22:33 AM PDT by Diana in Wisconsin
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What a good combo! Little shedding, due to the poodle in her. I’m all for that! Love her name. :)
Very productive potato growers! I’m going to dedicate one of my raised beds to potatoes this season. The soil, though amended, in The Big Garden is just a rocky, clay-filled mess.
I’ve told Beau I’m giving that garden back to HIM to do with as he pleases. I’m sure he’ll just make it into a Food Plot for birds (turkey, pheasant) which was the original intent.
My 16 raised beds are More than enough for me to handle, now.
Just like last year, I still have healthy tomato plants with fruits waiting to ripen in northern Door County, WI. Mostly cherry tomatoes. After all of the rain we just got, I predict some will split. I may pull the plants today as it’s supposed to get down to 36 overnight. Lots of big tomatoes I picked when they showed the slightest hint of ripeness are sitting on the counter slowly turning red.
How was the apple crop by you this season? It was ridiculously wonderful down here! (Dodgeville)
I have ONE garden tomato left on the counter. A ‘Celebrity’ which I am going to use in one last BLT for the season. :)
I have four left. I’m going to chop them up and put them in the next Quiche I make. :)
That would work for me, too - now I have a new recipe idea - thanks!
This hot green taco sauce, served at a popular restaurant, is easily replicated for the holiday table.
Just blender-puree a jar of La Victoria fire roasted jalapenos.......that’s it.
Surround the sauce with corn chips and you’ve got it made.
Wow. Couldn’t be simpler!
And delicious.
For our FBI Observer!
Trade publication Article about K fertilization in helping plants to improve frost resistance! (Potatos and mustard! For fall gardeners!)
Role of Potassium in Frost Resistance
"In this experiment, potassium fertilisation increased frost resistance on all three soils and particularly so on the soil of lowest K status. The effect of increasing potash fertiliser application in mitigating frost damage on the soil of medium K status without effecting tuber yield indicates the requirement of higher K supply to improve frost resistance at low temperatures.
It is not just potassium that can improve a crops tolerance to cold temperatures, various observations have been made relating to the impact of calcium and phosphorus, as well as some micronutrients. Potassium should not therefore be considered in isolation for this purpose.
The risk of frost may have subsided for the time being as temperatures have risen dramatically, but late frosts arguably are a greater cause for concern, when plants are further forward, containing more water, and the potential for potassium deficiency is greater."
Yes, they are selling a product, but I have read this elsewhere.
It rained over the last few days and washed out the liquid fertilizer I applied. Going to do my weekly fertilization and up my potassium level! (Will need to cover things later in the week....below freezing temps!)
(Now off to the garden!)
In some of the older articles describing the effects of charcoal/biochar as a soil amendment, I saw the occasional mention of how crops in char-heavy soils suffered less frost damage. This might explain the mechanism behind that!
One of the ways char improves the soil is by fostering the growth of beneficial microbes. Some of those microbes are responsible for converting minerals from the soil into forms a plant can take up easily. If taking up more minerals makes some plants more frost-tolerant, it would explain the observation.
Pine needles need raking, but yesterday was 80 something & today is even sunnier and currently 81 - I’m passing on raking! The temp starting tomorrow should be in the 60’s, so that will be better raking weather. Rain due Friday (80%) so I’ll be raking the needles up before they get wet.
Took the old truck to the shop today - looks like maybe the system that recharges the battery is acting up. Of course, all the way to the shop ... no problem. The other day, warning light came on & never went off ... I never left the driveway, either.
My half hog - wanted some today. Being lazy all weekend (after Saturday morning), I never took any meat out of the freezer. Hmmm .... what to do, what to do? What I ended up doing was taking out all the ‘neck bones’, which are small and should be ready by early evening (6ish, maybe 7). They were frozen, now in the crock pot & smelling delicious. I’m using a ‘soul food’ recipe:
Soul Food Style Pork Neck Bones
https://iheartrecipes.com/pork-neck-bones-soul-food-recipe/
I have a small crowd of folks waiting to see how they turn out. I almost passed on the neck bones (my SIL gave me hers) but I figured if I was paying for half a hog, I was going to get every little bit. I have fat to render down to lard (SIL gave me hers, too). My paternal granny cooked with lard for pretty much everything and I’ll be happy to have some pastured pork lard on hand. The lard might be my Friday ‘rainy day’ project. :-)
Looking at a recipe for a spaghetti squash casserole. The squash grown this year in the cook’s garden was a “Stripetti”. It’s a cross “between a delicata and a spaghetti squash and has the hard skin of spaghetti squash and the sweet-tasting flesh of delicata squash.” Evidently, it produced a bumper crop, thus the casserole to help use it up.
Stripetti Squash
https://www.specialtyproduce.com/produce/Stripetti_Squash_15269.php
Spaghetti Squash Casserole
https://alldayidreamaboutfood.com/spaghetti-squash-casserole/
Re: Pork Neck Bones
We’re the same way with Bear Ribs. No one in Beau’s hunting gang wants them, so he comes home with ALL THE RIBS.
I just bake them up in the oven and pull off the meat and make BBQ with then. And the Bear Dogs, who all worked SO HARD on getting said bears in the FIRST place, get an unexpected treat of some bear fat and bones to gnaw on. :)
I’m also a, ‘Nothing Wasted Girl.’ :)
This is about high altitude cold tolerant microorganisms rather than biochar: (Find a source, use it to innoculate your biochar!)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/B9780128212653000086
"The biomes of extreme environments are hotspots of diversified groups of microorganisms comprising of archaea, bacteria and fungi. Microbiomes of the extreme environment also provide vital information about the physical and chemical limits for physiological and biological adaptability. Agro-ecosystem of high altitude environments comprise of diverse microbes, which have physiologically, metabolically and biologically adapted to cold environments. These microbes display unique enzymes, proteins, and membrane structures. High altitude soils of the world possess several challenges for agriculture including: low temperatures and poorly fertile soil. To overcome these problems, various biotechnological/microbiological approaches have been assayed during the last two decades, involving the use of cold-loving (psychrophilic) or cold-tolerant (psychrotrophic) organisms. Thus, hill and mountain agro systems can utilize these microbial inoculants that can tolerate the harshness of cold environments and maintain their functional traits for promoting plant growth. Numerous plant growth promoting rhizospheric bacteria (PGPR) from high altitude soils capable of phosphate solubilization, production of siderophore, Nitrogen fixers, production of 1-Aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylate deaminase (ACC), phytohormone producers, biocontrol agents, production of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), induction of systemic resistance have been reported. Thus, bacterial diversity from this high altitude environment which possesses PGP attributes can serve as a house of database of bio-inoculants and could also be used for enhancing agricultural productivity of the high altitudes."
I was at Trader Joe's today; They were selling 16 oz of roasted pumpkin seeds for about $8!
I will keep that in mind!
KS Rural Center Sustainable Ag -Brassicas
"Types of Brassicas Turnips, an excellent late-fall forage, can reach max- imum production in 80 to 90 days after establishment. Turnips can range from predominately leaf to root vari- eties. Purple Top White Globes is a common turnip variety used for grazing (Wikse and Gates, 1987). Turnips can germinate in soil as low as 40°F. They will continue to grow until temperatures drop as low as 15°F (Gompert et al.). Turnips required several days of temperatures continually below freezing to be killed (Rook, 1998). Kale has the best cold tolerance of the Brassicas with a survival tolerance down to 10°F. Forage rape is a short-season leafy Brassica ready to graze 60 days after planting. Giant varieties are best suited for cattle or sheep grazing; dwarf varieties are best suited for fin- ishing lambs (Thompson and Duncan). Swede is a long-season plant with a large edible root. It requires 150 to 180 days to reach maximum produc- tion and is best suited to late-fall grazing. Generally it has higher yields than turnips (Thompson and Duncan). Available turnip varieties for fall and winter grazing include Purple Top, Barkant, Sampson, Dynamo and Rondo. Turnip forage types for summer and early fall grazing include Civastro, Rangiora, and Forage Star. Other Brassica forage varieties include Pinfold Kale, Premier Kale, Hobson Rape, Dwarf Essex Rape, Interval Rape and tyfon (Rook, 1998
More at link; info on incorporating brassicas into pig, cattle, and sheep diet. (Need to add iodine.) Given the problems with Rape seed meal affecting the nervous system of cattle in Britain I don't know how heavy I would go on brassicas as a feed stock. Cow horn turnips can be used to break up compacted soil and can be ploughed back in.
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