Ravishing Radishes

I have never been much into radishes. I’m guessing there is more than one way to skin a radish, but I only ever at them in salads years ago. They were always flavorful and added some crunch, but nothing I craved. Until… have you ever had Korean Fried Chicken #TheRealKFC?

In our neck of the woods, KFC has been a pretty hot trend for about five years. If you’re not sure what it is , I suggest you not ask too many questions and just trust me when I say it’s delicious. It’s double fried or twice fried chicken with a few different sauce options – usually sweet or spicy. I wouldn’t say KFC is a regular indulgence by any means but two to three times a year won’t kill you, or it will, I can’t say for sure.

The whole reason I’m bringing this up is because the accompaniment served with Korean Fried Chicken is pickled radish that is absolutely addictive. You can’t stop popping them in your mouth. I think they cleanse the palate and turn down the heat. You will ask for multiple refills, I assure you.

So back in September when I wanted something fast and easy to plant, I heard radishes fit that description. But per my opening paragraph, I didn’t think beyond what I would do with them after I grew them. I hope I’m not the only gardener who does this. I obviously didn’t want to waste them so I thought pickling would be a good approach.

Without further ado, here is an insanely fast and easy recipe for pickled radish KFC style that are great to put with cheese, crackers, and other snacks when you have guests over <hint hint for upcoming holiday gatherings>.

What you need:

1 lb radish (daikon is recommended, I used a regular cherry radish)
⅔ c white granulated sugar
⅔ c white vinegar
⅔ c filtered water
¾ tsp salt
2 pint-sized canning jars with lids

Steps:

Clean, peel, and chop your radish into 1/4 to 1/2″ cubes. Place in canning jars.
Combine your pickling liquid and stir to dissolve the sugar and salt.
Pour the pickling liquid over the radish.
Store in the refrigerator for minimum 8 hours; 24-48 hours is recommended.
Try to stop eating them.

Okay, Okra, I see you

Anybody else ready to hibernate? I’m slowly putting things away and tidying up. It makes me happy to see that being a bit lazy has actually been to my benefit. I know some people will pull out their plants as soon as the last piece of fruit ripens or the first frost threatens. I’m a little more of the ‘wait and see’ mindset and like to see what happens. There is always a lesson to learn or observe.

As I was meandering around this past weekend, I got another handful of jalapenos and saw my beautiful okra plants had gone to seed. A reminder that all seasons of life are beautiful and have purpose. It’s easy to focus on the flashy and exciting times, but the slow stillness is essential to a complete cycle. Yin and Yang. I guess the goal is to transition smoothly through these ups and downs.

As you’ll read in my 2021 lessons, okra is one of my unsuspecting MVPs. A beautiful plant, a surprising standout in the vegetable category, it creates the perfect canopy for shade loving lettuces and produces an immense harvest with very little effort.

Okay, here’s a few quick tips for seed saving okra (spoiler: it couldn’t be easier).

Let the husks get extremely dry. They should be starting to crack or split.
Select a few from the plants you deemed the best producers.
Gently break them open with a bowl nearby.

That’s it. Seriously. Perfect for a beginning attempt at seed saving.

Put your garden to bed, and tuck it in with some garlic

As I’ve gotten a little older, I have grown to love Fall more and more. Of course from a gardening perspective, it represents things slowing down a bit and being able to enjoy the hard work and bounty of the harvest. On a personal level, I also see it as a time to take stock of all the good things in my life. Things get going so fast a lot of the time that it’s easy to always be on to the next thing. I’d like to think that after my year of enough I’m better at appreciating where I am and what I have, but reminders are always helpful too.

Have you ever heard that the best way to have a good tomorrow is to get good night’s sleep tonight? The same principle applies to your garden. As colder weather sets in and the hours of daylight fade, time spent in the garden for me is more about wandering, noticing, and pondering. Where do I want to move that? What would grow better here? I’m sure you can see where this is going… my 2021 garden lessons and successes post will be coming soon.

Getting back to the concept of rest and replenishing, this is the perfect time to tuck in your garden beds for their winter respite. This involves putting back a lot of what has been taken out throughout the Spring, Summer and Fall. When you think about how much nutrition and mass leaves the soil throughout the growing season, it only makes sense to refill the tank so to speak. Like a bank account, if you’re only making withdrawals you’ll soon be in the negative.

Here’s How to Layer your Beds for Winter

A layer of aged manure
A layer of compost
A layer of shredded leaves
Put something on top, like cardboard or a tarp, to keep everything in place so that it gets all warm and cozy for the winter.

garden bed layered with compost and manure for garlic planting

two heads of garlic laying on garden bed

head of garlic broken up into individual cloves on soil

Note: End of October/early November is also the perfect time to plant your garlic for next year. Identify whichever bed or section you want to plant it in, remembering that you won’t harvest it until mid to late June so factor that in to your placement. Then depending on how much space you can dedicate, each clove needs to be planted 2-3” deep and 4-5” apart, buy as many organic heads of garlic as will fit in your space. I bought 3 heads of garlic and planted between 27-30 cloves (plant the biggest ones) into the compost and manure I had just put down, and then covered with shredded leaves and a few cardboard boxes.

Fire Cider for Health

Ladies and Gents, in the spirit of prevention, it is my duty to inform you that flu season is upon us and I encourage everyone to go get a flu shot. If prevention isn’t your thing, well then I’d be remiss to ask how you’ve found yourself a hobby like gardening? Homesteading and self-sufficiency is all about being prepared and doing what’s in your power to ensure a better tomorrow (the definition of prevention in my book).

On the flip side of that same coin, while I have much respect for the evidence and advancements of the scientific and medical communities, I will also emphasize that we shouldn’t solely rely on them to “make us better.” There is nothing wrong or contradictory to also use the wonders of nature, our original doctor, to boost health and immunity. That’s called complementary.

In that vein, I have been hearing about fire cider for over a year now but for whatever reason haven’t managed to find the time to actually make some <Translation: totally unmotivated and barely getting myself to accomplish the minimum each day due to the pandemic>. I had been doing The Booch for a while if you recall because that’s great for boosting gut health. But I’ve taken a break from that and figured there’s no better time to jump on some fire cider and #MIM (make it myself).

I did some searching for different recipes and found that most are built off the same baseline ingredients and the overall process seems to be pretty similar as well. The main difference between recipes seems to be the variety and extensiveness of ingredients. Basically, how much flair do you want to add?

The majority of recipes I reviewed all used the following ingredients.

Apple Cider Vinegar – a source of Vitamin C, amino acids, and more
Citrus fruit (lemon and/or orange) – source of Vitamin C
Garlic – a wonder food that boosts immunity, plus many other benefits
Ginger Root – great for soothing the stomach
Honey (local) – a natural allergy fighter
Horseradish – effective against respiratory issues
Hot Peppers – boost metabolism and sinus relief
Onion – boosts heart health and anti-inflammatory
Turmeric – anti-inflammatory

So here’s what I did:

Chopped an orange, lemon, onion, and four habanero peppers. Peeled a whole head of garlic. Shredded a large piece of horseradish and ginger root. Note: If you’ve never shredded horseradish, it will open your nasal passages like never before!
I divided the ingredients between two quart-sized mason jars and then sprinkled 1 tablespoon of turmeric on top of each.
Then poured enough apple cider vinegar in each jar to cover all ingredients.
I covered the top with a piece of parchment paper and screwed the band on then shook it gently.
I let it sit on the bottom shelf in my pantry for a month and tried to shake it up a little each day if I remembered. Realistically, it was more like 3 times each week.
After one month, I strained out as much liquid as I could and then poured into a clean quart jar.
I added about ¼ c of honey and stirred. You can add however much ‘til it meets your taste preferences.
Then store in fridge.

two quart mason jars brewing with fire cider ingredients

I am taking a tablespoon each morning to prevent any illness. Some people think it will also help shorten any bouts of cold and flu that you may experience. If you want to check out a couple, these all tap into nature’s amazing immune-boosting properties.

Classic Mountain Rose Herbs Fire Cider Recipe
Fire Cider Health Tonic from Foodie with Family
Melissa K. Norris Traditional Fire Cider Recipe

I’m Molting!

I walked out to my chicken coop the other day and was met with this sight – Hei Hei the chicken from Moana! My first thought was What the

I walked out to my chicken coop the other day and was met with this sight – Hei Hei the chicken from Moana! My first thought was What the heck happened to you, little lady? and I started inspecting her for an injury. But she was walking and pecking around just fine, clucking just fine (pretty vocal actually), and eating and drinking.

Bovan brown hen with patches of missing feathers due to molting

The weather here is starting to slowly cool down so the conclusion I’ve come to is that she’s molting. I know this happens about once a year, but this feels a little odd to me. Why is it only happening to one chicken? Anybody else ever had this happen?

I know the usual reasons for losing feathers are stress, improper diet, lice and other parasites, annual molting, broodiness, and being pecked on by other chickens. My other thought is that she was my Broody Betty back in August who wouldn’t get out of the nesting box for like three weeks until I finally blocked the boxes. That was my first experience with a brooding hen and I should have acted sooner but I kept thinking “She’s gotta give up on this any day now.” What makes sense to me now is that from all the time she spent laying on those eggs (like 23 hours a day-serious dedication!), she most certainly experienced reduced nutrition and thus her feathers have taken the hit. I’m hopeful she bounces back quickly so am giving extra treats for a bit to boost the fat and protein intake for her and the rest of the flock.

What the Hori?

Alright, alright, alright. Did you read that with a Matthew McConaughey Texas twang? I recently listened to his book Green Lights while gardening so he is fresh in my mind. Most of us should be making our way towards lifting our heads and coming up for air. The crazy harvest season is likely winding down for many. I am personally ready for a slower pace.

Maybe I took on too much this season, and that was mostly intentional. I knew I’d be home every day due to the pandemic and wanted to push myself. Without my 2+ hour commute three days each week, I gained back all the time I need for gardening. I’ll be doing a lessons learned post soon and can’t wait to hear from others what your big successes were and what you’ll do differently next year.

In the meantime, I wanted to shout out a tool that I pretty much can’t live without. Have you heard of a hori hori knife? I hadn’t either until one afternoon when I was volunteering at the local farm where I learn oh so much from everyone I talk to. Now it’s on my gardening belt and I don’t walk out the door without it. So what is it? Sounds kind of scary, right?

Gray garden toolbelt with hori hori knife

From what I’ve read it comes from Japanese culture and is a multi-purpose gardening tool. Initially it just looked like a big knife to me but then I started to really appreciate its versatility.

Digging. It’s fantastic for digging in to remove deeply rooted unwanted weeds like Doc that pop up a lot in my garden and yard.
Cutting. Similarly you can use the sharp edge to cut back a plant that has overgrown.
Planting. I really like it as my go to for either creating a little trench to sprinkle seeds in, like I just did for radishes, or making individual spots for my starts such as broccoli or cabbage. It essentially replaces the need for a hand trowel. And it has marks for measuring depth if you are aiming to be precise.

Cactus tells me I look like Indiana Jones or Crocodile Dundee with it on my belt. But who cares – I love it!

Let’s Talk About Chickens, Baby!

Well, summer is rounding the corner into fall and I will be the first to say “Hallelujah!” It’s been a hot, tiring summer for me and I really can’t point to anything specific but I just have a lot less pep in my step most days. My garden has been motivating with lots of successes and lots of lessons learned for sure. I’m sure I’ll write a post about this sometime in October because it’s always valuable to look back and assess what was worth the effort and what wasn’t. It’s funny how things can go 80-90% right but that 10-20% that didn’t really nags at me. Gotta learn from it and move on. As they say “Can’t win ‘em all.”

One of the successes throughout the last few months has been my chickens. Oh how I enjoy watching and listening to them. The chicks I got back on April 19 are now starting to lay eggs and they are far from being little fluffballs anymore. Just a week ago I would have been proud to say all are alive and well but we recently had some jail breaks. Each evening when I go to lock the coop I always do a head count. On Thursday, one of my browns was missing. Couldn’t find her anywhere and spent about 45 minutes looking in the dark with my head lamp. I eventually gave up and went to bed with a pit in my stomach. Thankfully, she was out pecking around on the wood pile the next morning and I was so relieved. Then, on Saturday evening one of my dominiques/barred rocks (still can’t tell the difference) was missing. Again, I spent about 30 minutes searching the yard and nearby low branches in case she was already perching but no luck. And sadly she was nowhere to be found the next morning either. Still haven’t found a trace of her which seems odd. But I didn’t want this to become a pattern with the chickens getting bolder and bolder so I asked Cactus to put up some higher mesh fencing which I hope helps.

Speckled sussex and buff orpington chickens

If you have chickens, how do you keep them secure during the day? I want them to be as free range as possible but they have to be safe.

Here Come the Fall Crops

I don’t know about you but the weather this summer is no joke. For me, it’s either blazing hot or pouring rain. My plants seem like they don’t know what to do and every day I’m just trying to decide whether it will rain that evening or not and if I need to water plants.

Depending on your growing zone, you may have already started your fall crops indoors. I’m in the Mid-Atlantic in 7a so end of July/early August is that time for me. Last year I bought starts from the nursery for brussels sprouts and broccoli so this year I am attempting to grow them from seed myself and will start them indoors along with my *wildcard* crop cabbage. It’s a wildcard because I’m just going to experiment with about four of them and see how my luck goes. My hope is to make sauerkraut for some good probiotics during the winter. Everything else – beets, collards, kale, radish and spinach – I’ll direct sow in early September.

As you may have surmised, here’s where timing and space get a bit tricky. All my main summer crops – beans, peppers, squash and tomatoes – are in full swing thus there isn’t much available space. I do have two small open beds where my onions and garlic failed and where I’ve already harvested all my carrots. However, I want to put down a cover crop in one of them to help build up the soil. Sort of feels like a game of Tetris sometimes. Anybody else feel that way? I’d love to know how you all inter-plant different crops as the seasons are changing.

Update: I did want to re-visit the ‘tomato wall’ that I newly established this year to give you an update. The last two years all my tomato plants became an unmanageable jungle: year one was tomato cages and year two was an A-frame support structure. Neither of which worked well once there were big fruits that needed substantial support. I didn’t want another year of disappointing results which is why I tried fencing and T-posts and tomato clips. Sooooo <drum roll please> the tomato wall is going extremely well and I’m really happy with the results so far! I planted my paste tomatoes together, my German pinks for canning all together, and then my little cherry tomatoes for salads and snacking together. Check them out!

25 foot line of fencing and t-posts with different tomatoes growing up

Stop and Smell the Daisies

Phew, it’s about the halfway mark of the summer growing season. How are you feeling? Eager? Overwhelmed? Excited? Disappointed? Surprised? Probably a mixture of many emotions on any given day. I’m out in the garden about an hour every morning and I love it. Can’t think of a better way to start my day with whatever coolness the day offers, the birds singing, and all my plants looking fresh and supple. But there are some days I just want to lie in bed.

I think it’s like a lot of things in life that take time and dedication, the midpoint can sometimes feel like a lull. The finish line still a ways away. So I’m trying to absorb the experience. Soak up the process. Take lots of notes, ponder what’s going well and what I might want to do differently next year. I’m learning that no matter how much I plan, no matter how much I read or how many videos I watch, and no matter what I do – nature makes the rules. And Momma Nature can change the rules at any time.

Just like everything else in life – training for a sports competition, preparing a presentation, catching the curveballs of parenting, and driving to the store – there will always be elements out of my control. I’m a planner and an organizer but all of my efforts still stop short of guaranteeing an outcome. If I’m only focused on the numbers or pounds of each crop harvested, I’m missing the point. The garden is wise. No matter what is happening, there is something to learn. And that’s why I’ve chosen this hobby. I’m always learning, and mostly about myself. There’s something to be said for quiet time in nature and appreciating its beautiful complexity.

I made a point of planting flowers this year, mostly perennials, as a visual and physical reminder to stop and smell the daisies, susans, and cosmos (not a rose kind of girl). There’s always work to be done. And in equal measure there is time to simply be. And if I can’t remember that, seeing my dog relaxing in the grass is as good a reminder as any.

I hope your gardens are flourishing and I hope you are remembering to lie in the grass and watch the clouds float by.

Who’s in your Garden?

Do you know who is in your garden right now? I mean, do you really know? The only way to know is by visiting your garden at different times throughout the day. Yes, I know that takes a little more time and planning but you can be smart about it. For example, do your weeding in the morning on Mondays and Wednesdays, and do your watering in the evenings on Tuesday, Thursdays and Saturdays. Midday is hottest and I’d venture to guess you’ll see the least action but hang out for 5-10 minutes and just browse your beds slowly. Usually we’re so focused on completing a task that sometimes we don’t stop to just observe and you’ll be surprised to learn who is creeping around. There’s a black snake that sleeps under the bin where I store stuff and there are two crows who dart in and out of my berries.

In the mid-Atlantic my two garden frenemies are squash bugs and Japanese beetles. Last year the squash bugs decimated my zucchini and cucumbers. The year before that the Japanese beetles feasted on my beans. It’s so frustrating to put in all the work, see everything start to blossom, and then from one week to the next, game over.

little brown eggs on the underside of a leaf along the veins

small squash bugs on the underside of a leaf

I prefer not to use any pesticides in my garden, so this year I’ve been focused on two strategies – prevention or distraction.

Prevention: I go out to my garden nearly every morning and inspect my squash plants. I turn over the leaves and I examine the stems of the plants. You’d be amazed at all the critters you find hanging out, to which I say, “Grrr, nobody invited you to this party!” I typically just smoosh them with my hand and if I see eggs on the leaves, I scrape them off with my finger nail. I’m also experimenting with a spray I made myself (#MIM) of 1 tsp peppermint oil and 1 tsp tea tree oil in 1 cup of water. After I’ve cleaned away the critters, I’m spraying the underside of the leaves and it seems to be working. The other prevention strategy is to keep your squash plants covered with fabric. I will likely experiment with this next year.

Distraction: You may want to consider various options for companion planting, nasturtium is highly recommended and I planted it near my beans, peas and asparagus and to be honest I don’t see a lot of bug action in those areas so it seems to be working. The other approach I’m using is planting a few of the crops I really want to ensure succeed in different locations, for example a big container near my front porch. I know the bugs can still find them but I’m hoping they leave these ones alone. Along these same lines is to stagger your planting. Such as putting out 3-4 squash plants in June, and then 3-4 more in July if your growing zone accommodates this. I guess it’s technically more sacrificial than distracting but it’s working so far.