Follow-up

Thank you for the well-wishes that were privately sent my way, it means a lot!  The surgery was successful, and a lot easier than I was expecting. 

After hearing stories of my relatives waking during surgery or not responding to pain medication, I was half-expecting to wake and jujitsu my doctor (and the dozen other people in the room) in the middle of the operation... but nope, it consisted of just laying down on the table, and waking up in the recovery room.  And my doctor's face didn't look beat up, so all went well.  They showed me before and after photos of the insides, so I am assured that everything is good to go in there.  Okay uterus, it's time to get yourself psyched up for a fresh start!

I'm on the last day of recovery, and Baker Creek is having a 50% off sale on some of their heirloom garden seeds until 9/6/13, so it is a good day for quietly sipping a cup of tea and fantasizing about next year's new life. 

And it's a good day for trying to keep my list of varieties low... who honestly needs 12 types of tomatoes? 

Going Under

I'm headed into surgery today.

We've been having issues with unexplained infertility over the past couple of years.  We spent a year being tested for everything under the sun, but nope... nothing is wrong.  Heck, we can even get pregnant, I just can't stay pregnant.  The only other variable has been the stress in my life... if work stress is bad enough to give me vomiting, cramping, migraines, whole-body hives, and a host of other lovely symptoms that I can't mention in polite company, then it is probably bad for fertility.  Well, "probably" is an understatement... systemic inflammation is bad for a wee zygote.

Meyer Lemon

I am lucky enough to live just a few blocks away from a plant nursery / pool store.  On my way home Sunday, I came to a screeching halt and turned into their parking lot.  The sign had said "Meyer Lemons, $25."

I've wanted a meyer lemon tree for ages and ages.  When we moved to our first house a year and a half ago, the previous owners left behind a lemon tree in a half wine barrel... the lady said she thought it was a meyer lemon, but it was in bad condition and in 2 years it has not made a single fruit.

Anyway, here is a baby tree that we KNOW will be a meyer lemon!

The lady at the nursery (what is the name for her job title, the Nurse?) says that as a dwarf, it will be 8 feet tall and 8 feet wide if planted in the ground, and will fruit well 3 years from now.  If we let it grow bushy, it will give a lot more fruit than if we trim it into a tree shape.

We must decide where to plant it.  The best full-sun spot is in the northwest corner of the backyard by the pool, but it does take up some prime blackberry vine space I had been planning.  Both the mystery potted citrus and the potted buddha's hand are doing much better now that we moved them from full sun to partial sun... and the Nurse says her meyer lemon is doing better in partial shade too... so that may not even be the best spot.  Hmmm.  I'll update you when we actually get it planted, which may happen next weekend.

I am full of hope!  Hope for fruit in 3 years.

The 2014 Plan: A year (or two) of survival food

My goal for 2014 is to live on $5/day per person.
This is the equivalent of the food expenditures on minimum wage.  However, I want this amount to not sacrifice nutrition.  It should be super healthy due to making everything from scratch!  We have spent the past year getting used to cutting out processed foods, so the transition should not be too painful, considering that I will have a lot more time on my hands to cook more creative meals.

I changed plans a bit after more research.  Long term storage for the win!

Strange tomato of the day: Talk to the hand

The plant really didn't want to let go of this one.

Recipe: Garden Salsa

This stuff is so good that we haven't managed to make it last longer than 2 days.  It's the thai chilis that really make it!  They can be found at some asian grocery stores, I found some at Ranch 99.

Ingredients

• 3 cups homegrown tomatoes (don't pick the over-ripe ones)
• 5 large snips off of a bunch of cilantro
• 2 thinly-sliced thai chilis (these chilis are just an inch and a half long)

Instructions

• Mix together
• Refrigerate (it is somehow hotter the next day)

All the pretty colors!

Coturnix (Japanese) Quail Fantasy

Whoa, there is so much info out there on Japanese quail now!

About 3 or 4 years ago I was looking around for the best types of birds to produce tasty home-grown eggs, and also the best types of animals to grow for meat.  My restrictions are pretty simple:  the animals must be mostly quiet (no ear-piercing, neighbor-disturbing, homeowners-association-angering crowing), very productive, be easy to feed and take very little space.  It looks like my best bet is Japanese quail.  It appears they are now quite popular with small homesteaders, so it should be a lot easier to find some now!

Rabbits are another alternative, and my grandpa raised them for meat while he had a growing family, but I am more interested in eggs than meat at this point.

Here's some stats I've drawn together:

• Lifespan... 2-2.5 years.  
• Eggs laid per female in the first year:  200
• 4-5 eggs equal one chicken egg, by weight. 
• 2 pounds of feed will give 1 pound of eggs, whereas chickens are 3 pounds of feed for 1 pound of eggs.  
• Incubation time:  a mere 17 days!  
• Time to maturity:  6 weeks (at which point they can be culled/eaten)
• Space needed:  50 square inches per bird (but that seems hella tiny... most people give a square foot).  
• Best ratio to prevent males from fighting but to keep fertility up:  1 male to 3-5 females (6 females at most).  
• Best lighting for egg-laying:  14 hours a day.
• Other benefits:  composted quail manure is great for the garden, entrails and leftovers make high-quality dog treats, feathers available for crafting or stuffing pillows.
• Theoretically sell for $0.50 per egg, and are often not regulated because they are game birds and not "fowl."
• Legal to raise in California if they aren't released for hunting. 

Here's a video of a lady's quail enclosure, and it is very similar to what I'd pictured making:  a semi-shaded outdoor pen connected to a protected hen house.

I was wanting to get about the equivalent of 2 chicken eggs a day for personal use, so I'm guessing that'd be a bare minimum of 18 females and 3 males.  Here's what I'd need to do:

• Build an outdoor 3-story, 6'x2' house (could grow to 30 females and 6 males with that), preferably attached to a "free range" area topped with bird netting.  If it's in the shade, they can handle all the weather here in the mild bay area.  
• Purchase 2 dozen fertile eggs to get started (extra males would get culled at adulthood).
• Get an incubator with egg turner, 'cause no way am I waking every 2 hours during the night to turn eggs.  We use ancient hovabators at work for chick eggs, and they seem to work reliably.
• Make brooders out of my extra aquariums and reptile supplies.  
• Commit to daily animal care (I don't know what 2 dozen birds' daily poops will look like!). 
• I'd also get a tub going for raising and gut-loading* mealworms for treats again, especially since the quail have high protein needs... I used to do this for the geckos! 

Now, the question is... could I handle killing and butchering tiny adorable quail?  Well, not right now.  The youtube videos for cleaning quail carcasses are excellent, but make me well aware that I am squeamish.  But hey, whole animal bodies used to really gross me out, yet I have cooked 4 whole chickens so far, and after 2 I stopped being squeamish about that. 

I actually find cooking and using an entire chicken to be somewhat spiritual... there is no waste, as the meat gets eaten, the bones make a delicious mineral-rich broth, the skin makes a cooking oil, and the organs make dog training treats.

But anyway, if I ever want to be growing some of my own meat and eggs, I honestly think quail are the best option for my limited space.  Right now it is just a fantasy!  A morbid, getting-back-to-my-roots sort of fantasy.  Maybe someday, but I gotta get that veggie garden under control first.

 
*Gut-loading:  you "load the gut" of the insect with something highly nutritious and moisture-rich by feeding it high-quality food, then feed it to your pet.  It turns mealworms into tasty wriggling vitamin pills.  If you notice the photo from the right, the mealworms are gut-loading on an orange slice.




What are your homesteading fantasies?

Strange tomato of the day: Wide one

You know the "flower spot" at the bottom of a tomato?  

This one's flower spot is a line 3 inches long.

Recipe: Tomato Soup

The following recipe is the the best tomato soup I have ever had, and is also the easiest soup I've ever made.  Seriously awesome.

Ingredients

• 4 cups home-grown tomatoes with skin on, roughly chopped (I use 3 cups Lemon Boy, 1 cup Early Girl)
• 1 cup red onion, roughly chopped
• Any extra tomato juice you have left (after canning a bunch of tomatoes, I had about a half cup left over).
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 sprinkle of oregano

Instructions

• Add all ingredients to a pot.
• Cook on low for 30 minutes, then let cool slightly.
• Process in blender until liquid.
• Heat up, add a pat of butter, and serve.

 That's it!  I ended up canning some, but we inhaled the rest of it.

It turned out a lovely pale orange.

Preppin' for Leaner Times

This week I did some quick internet research to see what food items we could buy in bulk, and how much it would cost for a year's worth of supplies.  I plan to stock up before 2014, so that the transition to cheaper living is an easy one.

Here's a quick estimate on how much of it we'd go through per year, just 2 people, while trying to mix it up and not be boring:

• Steel cut oats, 50lbs (honeyvillegrain.com), $53
• Flour for sourdough bread, sourdough pancakes, etc (Costco), 80lbs, $35
• Dry garbanzo beans for hummus (honeyvillegrain.com), 25lbs, $44
• Dry lentils (local grocery on sale), 50lbs, $50
• Dry black beans (local grocery on sale), 50lbs, $50
• (Costco pinto beans are $14 cheaper, but we LOVE black beans)
• Basmati white rice* (Costco), 60lbs, $51
• Cornmeal, 50lbs (honeyvillegrain.com), $44
• Quinoa, (Costco) 12lbs, $30
• Pasta, (Costco) 13lbs, $13
• Costco membership, $55 
• Honeyville shipping, $5
• Honeyville 10% off coupon (sign up on email list, coupons come every few months), +$14

Total:  7.25** meals' worth per day, 390lbs of dry food, $416, = $1.14/day for everything
(Warning:  not all Costcos carry the same thing!  My list made for less than $1/day before I visited our local Costco to check it out.  I'll be visiting the one near my parents later for the quinoa and rice).

Once I actually go stock up on these things, I'll do another post to show exactly what the prices were.  If you have a better price for any of these things, I am interested in hearing it!  I am going to try out some other grains like barley and millet, because these can be found for under $1/pound. 

Considering that the average daily diet for one person on minimum wage is $5, my ideal goal is to average out at $10/day for both of us.  This leaves $8.81/day for meat, homemade yogurt, fruit and veggies (some from the garden), condiments, and beverages... it should be doable, and not too painful.  I should also mention that my husband is totally on board with this frugal whole foods experiment.  He's a trooper!

The garden is already reducing food costs... 

these 2 gallons of produce made some canned and sun-dried tomatoes for winter! 

We'll also be eating as Paleo-ish as possible on the budget, while soaking the flour and grains to reduce phytates (which, according to most sources, is the scientific reason to avoid grains on the diet).  The pasta (can't soak) and quinoa (can't fully avoid saponins) can't be Paleo, but we love 'em, so they are present as a smaller percentage of the year's dry foods.

We do have a few airtight 5-gallon food-safe buckets with gamma lids already, so we'll be storing some of it in those to keep it fresh throughout the year.

Hello, Lentil Loaf.
Everyone asks for my meatloaf trick, so I might as well add it in here:  Double the spices.  For the topping, add an equal amount of BBQ sauce to the ketchup, and stir in a tsp of dry mustard, and apply liberally.  Bathe in the impressed gazes of your diners.

*I picked basmati white rice for a reason... lower glycemic index (58, while jasmine is 109), and white keeps well in storage longer than brown.  It also has a lower level of arsenic than some types (and arsenic levels can be reduced by a further 30% by soaking until it is clear, then cooking 1C rice in 6C water and discarding the water). 

**7.25 meals' worth of carbs per day is an over-estimate for what we'll eat, considering that my husband often has free meals on business trips.  But who knows, maybe we'll have more time to be social and will host dinner parties once I'm at home.  Better to go over than under, where dry goods are concerned.

What cheap staples would you stock up on?

Major Garden Harvests

I've been keeping track of all of the produce we've picked, and now I am really glad I did!

Even before the first big tomato harvest 2 weeks ago, the garden is still the most productive I've ever had.  We moved a year ago, and I managed to get some plants in the ground this year... and wow, having sunlight and summer heat makes all the difference.

Here's the count so far:

• Lemon Boy tomato (7oz each):  123 = 53.8lb
• Early Girl tomato (5oz): 46 = 14.4lb
• Sunsugar tomato (0.5oz):  454 = 14.2lb
• Celebration tomato:  none yet
• Yellow pear tomato:  died
• Yellow papaya squash (1lb, they were older):  7 = 7lb
• Vulcan chard:  10 fully grown leaves
• Mint:  a nibble every other morning
• Basil:  just enough for tomato flavorings

Total:  623 tomatoes, 7 large summer squash, and a combined 89.4lbs

The tomato harvest from 2 weeks ago

What have we been doing with all this stuff?

• Fresh:
• Hundreds of Sunsugar tomatoes eaten raw, they are a burst of liquid sunshine.
• Balsamic basil tomato salad
• Tomato soup, which ends up hilariously orange, but is also the best tomato soup I have ever tasted.
• Salsa... SO much salsa, on everything
• Baked parmesan squash
• Stir-fried chard
• Mint tea
• Preserved for winter:
• Sun-dried tomatoes
• Canned tomato soup
• Canned crushed tomatoes... last night I canned 10 quarts!
• Dried tomato skins (for making veggie stocks)
• Gifts:  I've given quite a few tomatoes to family and coworkers.  They are too good to keep to myself!

  From the top left, clockwise:  

salsa, tomato soup to be cooked, fresh tomatoes, sun-dried tomatoes in the making

The fruit harvest has not even begun yet... the plums are very nearly ripe (I make my grandma's plum preserves recipe), and the apples still have a long while to go (apple crisp, mostly... they are bug-eaten so they must be sliced up).  There is also a rapidly-growing sweet potato vine that is taking over an entire garden bed, so there may be some treasures under the soil later.

It is really fun to see what has been successful in the garden, and to plan for the coming seasons.  Today I stopped to pick up some seed:  beet, spinach, chard, kale, radish, and a pack of mixed mustards.  I'll plant them this week, and hope for a very leafy fall harvest.

Yesterday afternoon's harvest.  This is a ridiculous amount, coming off just 3 plants all at once.

You can see a yellow papaya squash on the top right side, and it looks like those lemongrass stalks in the windowsill are ready to be planted after 2 weeks in water. 

I'll work on getting up some of those recipes I mentioned today, and will link them back to this post.


What's your favorite way to eat tomatoes?

Wild sourdough starter... good idea or bad idea?

A week and a half ago I made a sourdough starter out of organic whole grain flour, water, and local yeasts and lactobacilli.

My starter began bubbling within a week, and smelled like sourdough!  Success!  I portioned out some and gave it new food.  Then, it was not doing anything.  It started looking rather... limp.  Practically down in the dumps.

Is it just me, or does it look a little... blue?

To make a wild sourdough starter, you basically just mix the flour and water until it is a batter-like consistency, and then leave it open to the air.  Whatever yeasts and lactobacilli are in the area, or on your wheat, will use the flour as food.  The bacteria create lactic acid, and the yeasts create alcohol, and the acidic and alcoholic environment becomes inhospitable to other yeasts and bacteria, so it should be relatively stable.

I should mention that my doctor recommended I read "Cooked" by Michael Pollan, because I would find it interesting (so far I do!), and because he was intrigued with the method of bread-making that reduces phytates, and how great fermented foods are for us.  Phytates are substances in grains meant to ward off hungry bugs, and they also bind minerals (so you aren't absorbing all your vitamins), and they irritate the intestinal wall (causing inflammation which causes a whole host of other problems).  He thought having reduced phytates might be good for my upset digestive system.

So, long story short (maybe I will write a post on this later, once I have gotten it to work), a home-grown sourdough starter is an excellent way to reduce phytates in bread.  It's an old method of making bread that soaks the grain for a long time, and has weaker yeasts that the human body possibly finds easier to deal with.  And since I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, my local yeasts are especially yummy (SF is known for its sourdough cultures, and there is even a hotel in SF that will babysit your sourdough starter for you!). 

I came home today to stir it, and it was covered in Rhizopus, the fuzzy bread mold.  It occurred to me that the starter started behaving badly the day after I had cultured some Rhizopus at work for some student labs... did I bring it home on my clothes?  Those spores do tend to get everywhere, but they also exist pretty much everywhere in the environment anyway.

A little galaxy of spores!

And when people say you can just skim it off the surface?  Let me assure you, there is a HUGE underground network of mycelium, little fungi "roots", whenever you see mold on something.  It is not just on the surface.  We gave Rhizopus to students in petri dishes of transparent agar just so that they could see this phenomenon.

Perhaps, while I curate about 450 different species of fungi, starting a sourdough culture from "ambient" yeasts and lactobacilli might be a really bad idea.

I wouldn't want to end up with some Microsporum in there (which I use in lab next month)... eating ringworm can't be good for you.

Maybe I'll just stick with the yogurt and kimchi for now.  Yogurt is pretty fail-safe, since I don't leave it open to the air, and it gets refrigerated quickly.  And the kimchi has such hot spices in it, and is also refrigerated, so nothing much else can grow in there.

Do you ferment anything?  Have you had success with sourdough?