How To Burn Soy Nuts

My wife recently brought home a bag of SoyNuts she purchased at the store - I had done a few experiments shortly after harvesting over the winter. Well her purchase inspired me to give it another go, to try to nail down a good recipe/ cooking time. First you boil the dry beans in water for 15 minutes (a quart per half pound). Then what you don't do is put the over to 350 and let them cook for 35 minutes, while you walk away to do other things. The ones in the center of the pan are fine; those on the periphery found their way to the trash.

Mega Garden Part 2

Wow! Gardening in the mega garden is a lot of work.

The "weeds" are easy to detect because they are mainly maple trees.

Thank goodness for rain tonight because it takes about an hour a day to water the mega garden in this 85 degree heat.

I thought I would remember what I planted where but for the most part I don't so the sprouting plants are a mystery right now.

Today I put together the Martha Stewart herbal tower and planted some sunflowers, lavender & lemon marigolds along the edge of my side of the mega garden.

Gardenopolis

Hello friends!

I have made some serious progress this week in my little slice of Cleveland...

I deviated drastically from the original plan with the exception of what is being planted in the beds. Our biggest reason for originally designing all raised beds was the potential for lead in the soil; at my Permaculture Design Course we learned that the lead will not be taken up into fruiting plants and that the major concern is with green leafy veggies. We decided, therefore, to plant some gardens in-ground, and some in raised beds. We will also have some tests done to determine the level of lead (if any) in the two areas of in-ground gardens.

This deviation from the original plan allowed us an extra row of plantings in both the front and back gardens; the square footage of the back rows went down a bit though.

I also planted two more trees this week, so we now have two peaches and two plums. The strawberries are looking lovely, and we got to eat our first one of the year yesterday!

I have planted one vertical garden so far; I made it a bit too big around, and as a result it leans on the house :o) I'm going to plant ano ther one this week, but will make it a smaller diameter. It is growing potatoes, squash, and radishes for sure, and may pop out some other interesting foods as I sprinkled misc. seeds that had fallen out of their packets into the top couple layers of planting.

I still have to plant the second raised bed (behind the chicken coop), but need to buy some more topsoil first.

The grapes and hardy kiwi are doing really well, and I am excited about the size of our raspberry bushes this year! Yum!

So, that's it for now... off to work in the garden!

The Mega Garden

The demarkracy plotted out our garden last week. It went from medium sized to mega in one afternoon. Kathy and I started planting today. She has neat little rows in her section in the middle. There's not much rhyme or reason to mine on one end (although I am trying to use companion planting as much as possible). The other end is community, and Kathy has already planted bunches of potatoes.

My Set Up

In mid-April, I planted my apartment garden.  On the left is my bedroom: in the hanging planter there are two tomato plants and six strawberries.  In the pot on the window sill, peppers.  Outside the window there is mint, chives, cilantro, and parsley.  In the plastic tub on the floor, two bush tomatoes, cucumbers and rhubarb.

Above is my kitchen: from left to right: Salad Greens (included, swiss chard, celery, two lettuces, two spinach); summer squash and zucchini; soy, bush, and kidney beans; assorted egg plants.  There's also another tomato plant hanging in the window, not pictured here.

And five days later, I had sprouts!  Pictured is some of the leafy greens doing their thing.

I planted about a month ago, and some plants are doing shockingly well, and some horribly bad.  I'll post photos and updates in the next couple days.

Free Fishing Days

Ohio residents - May 1st and 2nd are free fishing days! Go out to your local pond or river and try your hand at fishing! I will be busy both those days, but if anyone without a license wants to try their hands at it I'd be glad to lend what little equipment I have. :D

Blanched Greens

Greens are filled with enzymes that will break them down if you try to freeze them; you can blanch the greens in order to destroy these enzymes by boiling them for 2-3 minutes. Don't ask me about the science - somebody smart (like Mike) will post the particulars I'm sure. Here are some leaves from our basswood tree boiling in a pot of water. I've frozen a few small batches and reconstituted them. They taste like cooked greens (duh.)