Moving Day

Update your RSS feeds or however you kept track of me in the past. I've moved.

http://existentialfarmer.dyndns.org

I may eventually pony up for a domain name, but for now, there it is.

Not sure how much of the original content here will get moved. I think the general plan is to move the essentials and let the rest lie in state here.

Drop by and let me know you are still around, I will add your site to the blogroll so long as its relevant to the subject.

Slowly picking up steam

Q:What do you call an IT professional with a really shoddy weblog?

A: Kory

Previously at least.

I have laid out the framework for a new and improved site that makes use of more capable web tools. Hopefully the end will be a site that contains some good static content (descriptions of finished projects, plant databases, etc.) along with dynamic stuff that I can easily update (hopefully from my phone) as the need arises (the regular blog stuff).

In other news, I just finished most of my seed/tree orders (including but not limited to some russian comfrey plants and a sambucus nigra black elder.)

Existential Crisis

I'm not going to wonder myself in circles as to why I stopped a fairly persistent streak blogging. That being said, maybe its spring fever, maybe I was just incensed about the things going on vis a vis the Dervaes trademark scandal.

Maybe its all the crap happening in wisconsin...
Maybe I'm in a better place...or at least have a better plan...

In any event, I was most successful in my efforts when I had a blog to keep me accountable for my progress.

So I guess this means I need to continue blogging if I want to resume the forward momentum I once had.

I think I may need to move the blog to a new layout to accommodate what I am really going after, but for the time being, I'll post here.

Sorry for the extended absence.
Kory
"Urban Homesteader" <-no TM necessary

Slacking off.

Its been a while, too long in fact. I have about 5 drafts of things that have sparked my interest, but nothing was ever cogent enough to deserve posting. I did however come across this item in the news. It would seem the GMO version of rice that got some minor press coverage here is back in the news. They want to label it organic. Now bear in mind as I said this particular case is not the more insidous form of GMO but a sort of GMO lite, but its genetic code has been tampered with.

Now here's my take on the situation. All GMO's should be labeled as such, and if we can't get transgenic GMO's banned entirely, then they need to be clearly labeled, including animals that are raised on transgenic feed. Then let people assemble their priorities like we do for local/conventional, local/organic, nonlocal/organic, and so on. Transgenics in my opinion deserve no place in agriculture because of their tendency to pollute other crops, and the fact that they are geared towards making the ecological and economic trap of conventional fertilizers and pesticides more lucrative. It takes the bad situation of conventional ag and makes it worse.

I am not indifferent to starvation but several things need to be made abundantly clear to the growers that these seeds are marketed too. First is that the person selling you the miracle seed is not always as altruistic as they seem. Second, it may not be that much better than what your already have.

I will of course be watching this one closely. Information is power and if we lose the right to know whats in our food, then we are relying on the benevolence of the least deserving to sustain us.

Miss me?

Its been too long, I know, seems like I was away for a while this time last year too, but with all the politics in the news I thought I'd share two items that have made Michelle Obama my favorite first lady of all time



And coming soon to a Kitchen Stadium near you...the secret ingredient is...Local!

Ideally I'd love to have one of these awesome cloches from breadtopia, keeps the loaf moist during the initial baking without having to use a pan full of water in the oven. Or in my case forgetting that it is a really dumb idea to let a glass pyrex pan heat up in the oven and then pouring water in it as I am about to throw the loaf on the stone. No I don't have pictures, you'll have to use your imaginations.

So minus the pyrex pan how do I keep my loaf humid for the first 30 minutes of baking?
with this.


Its not a perfect solution, but the price is right. Just grab an appropriate diameter pot and throw it over the top. (It gets hot so use mitts when removing)

The results? Better than the tray of water I my opinion.


I've also found that the method I use (whereby I make about 4 pounds of dough, and save it in the fridge until I need to use a pound to make a loaf) keeps the dough too cold to adequately rise in the 45 minutes time suggested in the article I pulled it from. 2 hours in a warm spot gets much better results.

And for those of us stricken with late blight this year there is hope. There are currently 3 tomato varieties listed as resistant, one of which "legend" is open pollinated. Buy now, there may be a run on these seeds come spring.

Future challenges

It would seem that the coming climate change will make the dismally wet summers I've notice the last couple years even more pervasive. And while I seem to have gotten a handle on insect issues recently, other forces have taken note and decided to fill the misery void. Namely fungus.

With wetness comes fungal infection, most noteably, the mildew twins (powdery and downy). I also noticed some scab previously on the leaves of my apple tree. Thus I have the following considerations when proceeding with next year's plan.

Physical: The current height of my raised beds is about 6 inches. This puts the garden foliage only minimally higher than the surrounding environment. In an effort to lower the relative humidity I will raise the bed surface another 6 inches. Hopefully this will have a tangible effect on the micro climate of the soil.
Second, any vining plant will be grown vertically. Rampant overlapping foliage proved a haven for fungal infection.

Plant selection: Despite its success at bringing squash pests to a minimal level, nasturtium grows rampantly and contributes to the overfoliated conditions above. In the future I may switch to a dwarf variety or reduce its use.
Best efforts will be made to find open pollinated cultivars with desired resistances. I have noticed that the waltham butternut variety of squash did not succumb to PM despite living in contact with infected delicata squash. Purely anectdotal of course but worth noting.

Human intervention: Despite my desire to create a homeostatic balance and let nature take care of the problem, it may become necessary to spray. I will only explore the use of compounds which can be easily and safely produced at home in keeping with my ethos of limited dependence on external system inputs. I tried a milk spray this year with only limited success, and next year will attempt to more closely follow the proceedures outlined in the study. Humans created the climate crisis and its side effects, so I guess I needn't worry too much that a little human intervention may be required. Attra has a publication about the use of compost tea as a possible deterent of late blight in potatoes. Given the close relation between potatoes and tomatoes I don't see a reason why the resistance might not be effective there as well.

If anyone wants to share their fungal woes please feel free.

Too much mint

Mint is great, I put a few seedlings in a 5" pot 3 years ago, stuck the pot in the ground, and then proceeded to ignore it ever since, save for the trip to grab a sprig here and there.

As many of the seed packets will attest to mint from see is not "true" I.E. it wont have the same flavor as the parent. So what I did this fall was to carefully select a leaf from each sprig, if I liked it, the plant was safe, if it was less than spectacular, I pulled the stalk and its rootball up. Hopefully next year I will have a more consistent flavored patch of mint. I also trimmed it back heavily, and spent the afternoon wondering what the heck I am going to do with all this mint.

Well some of it is going to get dried for tea of course but thats a lot of tea, and I usually prefer to blend it rather than go straight mint.

So, I made mint jalapeno jelly. Considering I hadn't made any kind of jam all year I really didn't feel rusty. I did however omit the food coloring, so the jelly looks a bit yellow, but I scraped some out of the bowl when I was done and it is certainly powerful...Its an odd experience. I've only ever had mass produced mint jelly so this was definitely stronger than what I was used to. At first all you taste is the sugar, but after its been in your mouth for a second the mint hits you...and then the heat.

It would be pretty awesome on crackers with some cream cheese. Its usually recommended to be served with lamb but...not gonna happen, so if anyone has any vegetarian ideas for it (other than crackers or toast) fire away.