deer

I am not sure what to say. Except, I am MORE than annoyed with the deer in my woods. It has been weeks since I have gone out to my garden and not seen foot marks, a leaf eaten here, and vine here. Up until today I could handle it alright. But, today has gone to far, I don't know what to say. I had almost 30 heads of summer lettuce that are the best summer lettuce seed you can buy. I had it up by the fence, you know, the L of corn around the summer lettuce. Well, today I went out and found that the deer had eaten 28 out of 30 of the heads of lettuce. Yeah, I'm not sure what to say, in 30 days I could have been harvesting heads of summer lettuce. What do I do? I mean!! AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! Man!

And that isn't all. I had sugar baby watermelon. Yeah, well, the deer thought they looked good too. I am not sure if I lost the actual melons (only a few inches in diameter each), or just most of the leaves off the watermelon plant. They also snapped in half a butternut squash vine I had. Meaning the two squash on it had to be harvested. They are about half the size they should be.

So, I took immediate reaction. I went to the house, got my sprayer, filled it with water and blood meal, and a little soap and sprayed. The lettuce, beans, corn, squash, watermelon, and anything else that was by the fence.

I know I should have known better than to plant the lettuce so close the the fence, but....

Oh well. I was just SO looking forward to some watermelons and lettuce. And now......

All I can do is sigh. I guess I need to be spraying with blood meal and garlic more often. Take warning fellow gardeners! :) If you see the foot marks, spray with garlic or blood meal. :) Don't do what I did. :)

Have fun, try to garden without killing all the deer. ; ) hahaha! :)

English Vintner

Motor

I just bought a motor off ebay, for my cider grinder and press plans. I bid $20 on one motor and got out bid, and went to the other one that was the exact same model, sold by the same person, and bid $10.50 and got it. :)

Now, they do not garuntee that it works, but, I sure hope it does. :) Otherwise I'm out $32.96. Now, the next thing is to find a cheap garbage disposal. See, I don't really need it to work because I don't use the motor in the disposal, that is what this motor is for. It works much better, so, now I need a coupling to connect the motor to the shaft of the disposal. I am hoping the disposal won't cost much more than $50. That way I could make the whole press and grinder for under $100 hopefully.

Well, I guess that is all for now. I hope to get out to the garden today, but probably won't do a whole lot. My siblings and I and Josh are planning on playing a LotR model game. My two younger brothers have LotR models that they paint and then have battles with, quite fun.

Keep chillin'!

English Vintner

Books

My day started off at 3:45am, it was time for work. With the help of a friend, Josh, (he is the one who helped me clear out my greenhouse yesterday, and hauled the rocks with me for the herb bed, really great to have someone working with me on projects) and my dad we did the bread route. Because Josh went with us it sped things up, and I was working pretty fast most of the time anyway. We got home at 1:10pm and were done work.

My Johnny's Seeds order has arrived. It is always fun to open a package, eh? I love anticipating it. Usually more so with books, but seeds are usually pretty captivating too.

The funny thing was that I got two packages today from Johnny's. They shipped out one package via UPS (cause it was 9lbs) and the other USPS. But, I guess because the way they traveled the both got here the same day (they were shipped two different days). The package in the mail was the Fava beans, a type of broad beans. According to the package I should sow in August/September to get a spring harvest. They can stand temps. down to 10ºF, so, I think I should be good. 4 years ago it got down to 4ºF, but rarely does it get down to 10ºF in Concord NC. We might get a day or two during the winter that will get down to 10-12ºF, but other than that it is usually in the 30-20ºFs. Anyway, I am glad to get that, I got a half pound, which, is only 110 bean seeds. I tried to start some earlier this year, but because of the extreme cold and wet they rotted. I actually got 4 beans to sprout, but they didn't produce cause the aphids got them.

The other stuff that I already talked about. 1 pound of chickling vetch, and 1 pound of hairy vetch, 5 pounds of winter rye, and some other seed packets.

I have been reading the two books that I got from Amazon last week. The Whizbang Apple Grinder and Cider Press. I read through it real quick, but most of what it is is about how to build it. So, I will be going through it again. The other book is about growing, making, and using your own barley, hops, and herbs to make beer. All about growing herbs and hops and grains for beer, and how to malt grains. A very good book. (Can't wait to show my cousin Jether it)

I would really like to build a whizbang cider grinder and press. Because I could do large amounts of cider at a time, or only spend 5 minutes grinding the apples and 15 minutes pressing the cider. It would probably cost me about $200, maybe a bit less for the grinder, and then maybe $20 for the press (maybe nothing). The main cost is, insinkerator (disposal), and a motor. The motor is because the motor for the insinkerator is useless for grinding apples (heats up every 30 seconds). So if I can find an insinkerator for $50 (on eBay) and a motor like what I need for $50 then that is basically the only cost I need to spend. For more information on the Whizbang apple cider grinder and press, google whizbang apple cider, and you will come up with his website and blog.

Bees. We are not going to be able to do bees this year. I was late in finding out about where to get bees, and then Powell Andrews asked if we wanted to go into business with it. Powell is talking about starting out with even more hives (I don't know, sometimes he talks bigger than we can handle), I am not sure though. If we did we would only have 4 or 5 here, and he might start one, and a few others might be interested. I would be happy to start with 4 hives. And build from that. At least not getting bees this year relieves a little stress. Everything should be in perfect order by early next spring, I'm gonna see if we can get bees as early as possible. We will probably save some money buying them in the spring, they get expensive after April 25. The guy who said would have bees did not call us, we left numerous messages, and it usually did take him a while to answer the phone. Sounds like an old hill billy from the south to me. :) Anyway, He guides our paths in the right does he not?

I'd better go. I did harvest some produce today though. My first two tomatoes (Abraham Lincoln), 3 cucumbers, 6 zucchini, and a dozen beans.

God Bless!

English Vintner

Corks

Well well. I just spent $500! Yipes! The most amount of money I've ever spent on one thing at one time.

The thing is, I expect to get back all my money (and or more) by selling what I just bought. You see, I just bought 5000 corks, yes that was thee zeros. The last time I ordered was I think a year ago (no, I think it was back in march of last year) and I bought 1000 corks. Well, I have 485 left, and someone just asked me if I had any left, he wants 500+. So, I just now ordered the corks, I hope them to arrive soon.

I am making one cent off of each cork I sell, so if he buys 500 corks I get $5. But, see, the more he buys, the better deal he gets, the worse deal I get. If you are only buying 100 or 200 I get quite a bit of money. If you only want 30-50 I make even more. I started this business when I cam across a place that sold wine corks, wholesale pricing.

I advertise on a wine and beer forum I am on, and that is where I have gotten most of my customers. Though, I have a few friends who also buy from me. Yup, an entrepreneur at aget 15.

So, anybody want to buy some corks? :) I have made probably about $50 off of my business so far. It is not a whole lot of money, but it is fun, and I am learning more about dealing with orders and business, which is good.

Have fun!

English Vintner

Greenhouse

I recently ordered some greenhouse tape. It is UV resistant and heat resistant. I am very excited and hope that this will fix the problems I have had with my greenhouse roof.

I need a few holes to repair (holes made on purpose, but need to be patched) and I need to tape the two sheets or plastic together.

Last fall I used packing tape, and actually that worked pretty well. Held up till about 2 months ago. Than it came loose. So I bought some cheap duct tape and used that, I figured it would work better, but, it can't stand the heat. I guess 130ºF heat melts and glue, and once it melts it is useless. So, that didn't really work. I was really getting disappointed with it.

I did some research and came across a web site that sells greenhouse supplies. I bought the two rolls, a little pricey, but, if it works than I think it will be good.

I ordered a few books off Amazon, also along with the books I got some stevia seeds. I'll probably get some sort of pot for them, so that I can bring it inside during the winter. I got a book on making the most efficient apple cider grinder and press, and a book about growing herbs and other things for brewing beer. I'm excited about those.

I finished the rock wall for my herb garden. Probably a couple tons I would guess of rocks. Actually practically broke our wheel barrow doing it. I might need to look into buying a new one. I'll see what I can do to repair it.

Now I just have to figure out where I am getting the dirt to fill my herb garden with. I might buy some top soil from Lowes, I don't know. I would get the cheap stuff, a dollar or two per cubic foot. I have some compost up here that would work for some of it.

Anyway. I need to pick some cucumbers today. I got up at 6am and hand weeded the corn up by the fence that is (the corn) in an L shape around the summer lettuce. It was enjoyably cool this morning, 68º. Tonight it is suppose to get down to 70º and tomorrow night 65º. So, it looks like Friday night will be good. We have a whole house fan that we use to suck in the air from out side into our house. Which on hot days like these, you need someone like me to get up early before the sun and turn on the fan to cool the house before 8am.

Too much work to do, too little time. I just have to remember who is taking care of things, and working out everything for my good.

God Bless!
English Vintner

Ordering

I've ordered a few things recently. The latest was the order from Johnny's Seeds. I ordered the following from them: 1 oz Allstar Gourmet Lettuce Mix (leaf lettuce), 1 piacket of Spinach seeds, 1 lb Hairy Vetch OG, 1/2lb Fava Beans, 5lb Winter Rye OG, Chickling Vetch OG 1lb, Gold Flower Packet, a colored watermelon that was on sale, almost two dollars off.

Most of the seeds are ones that I don't have and want to plant for the fall garden, or through the winter in the greenhouse. I have radishes, and I think rutabagas, carrots, and a few other things I want to grow over winter. I am hoping to grow lettuce through the winter and fall. So far we have not gone a week where there was not at least some lettuce growing in the garden. I have some really good summer head lettuce that is growing, I have it growing in a block, and then have corn growing in an L around it, providing more shade. Speaking of lettuce I am starting to get the seeds from my Romaine lettuce that I let go to seed. Hoping to grow some of that this fall/winter. The hard thing is that all the flowers don't open at the same time. So, I have to cut them and dry them when most of the flowers have seeds.

I'm going real big on the cover crops this year. The chickling vetch is said to fix nitrogen in 45 days. So, I will probably put some of that in some of the bare spots real soon, to keep down weeds, and if I start too late it might not work as well.


The hairy vetch is doing basically the same thing as chickling vetch, but takes longer. I ordered some of it because it is a little more winter hardy. I'll probably sow some of it with the rye grass.

The rye grass, as some of you know I did that last year. Pretty cheap, EXTREME winter hardy (surviving temps. down in the teens) and what more could I ask for? :) It is not leguminous, in that it does not fix nitrogen, but it keeps erosion down and is a green manure, meaning I plow it in in the spring, sow it in in the later summer/fall.

The Fava beans will be fixing nitrogen too, but they are not really for that, more for eating, but I am starting them off in the fall so that they get a good quick start in the spring. Especially since the beans rotted last year.

I am really excited about the green manures. I don't know how much manure I can get next year, but with good crop rotation and growing leguminous green manures I should be able to keep up the nitrogen level in my soil!

I finally got my rototiller working. For a while it wasn't, I wasn't sure what was wrong, but I sorta figured out how to start it and it worked. I am very grateful.

Well, I guess that is about all. Busy day ahead.

English Vintner

P.S. Anyone want to help fund my missions trip to Haiti this August? I need $800, and any more will go to the church in Haiti. Please pray, even if you cannot give. Pray for wisdom in the planning, packing, and that I would not get sick while in Haiti. And that God would use this to further my walk with Him!

God Bless!

Carrot Bread

I just made some carrot bread. I will post the recipe, I took it off the web, but modified it a bit. I'm claiming it as mine, but, the author of the original is CL, so thank you CL.

Why did I make carrot bread? I woke up at 6:00 went down to the garden to do some work, I love working early morning hours. You are the only one up. Its just you and nature, or you maybe better said, you and God. You get to spend some quite time talking to him. I love the bird calls, the dew, I like to take it all in. Plus, seeing the sunrise is always a great way to make my day!

Anyway, so I was down in the garden. One of the first things I did was turn the compost. I layed down some branches at the bottom to provide a little more air at the bottom. Then I put some of the compost I had just turned on Saturday (it was a little steamy!) on to the pile to add some almost ready compost to help this pile. I than put some comfrey leaves on it and put the whole pile on it. The bottom was actually doing quite well, but the top was some what dry. I mixed it in layers with fresh grass clippings I had raked up earlier (the grass was cut saturday). So, I have that one turned, I will probably continue to add to it, but now I have a new pile. After that I did some hand weeding. I really do enjoy hand weeding, especially in my garden. I have things in blocks not in rows, making it easier to weed by hand. You only do a few sections at a time. So I weeded the carrots, beets, and leeks. I than wanted to check on my carrots that I had planted back in March/April. I pulled up one I had transplanted and thought it was the funniest looking carrot I had every seen. It was sorta like a ball at first, and then it had 4 small carrot roots coming off from it. I then pulled up another and found it had carrot root fly maggots in it. I pulled up another and found the same. So, I lifted all my carrots, 3 out of all of them (15-20 small carrots) didn't have the root fly maggots.

I was able to salvage most of them, cutting off the top where the maggot was in. I was now worried about the parsnips, so I dug up a smallish one. It was doing great and no maggots! It was about half an inch diameter and 5-6 inches long. I was very excited.

My watermelons are doing well, my biggest are about 3 inches diameter. They are small red sugar baby, so they will only get a to four or five pounds. Next year I am thinking about doing 3 kinds of watermelon.

So, thats about all. I picked four more cucumbers today. I think I have picked at least 30 this year. I hope to get at least that many from the vines. And at least that many from the cucumbers just sprouting now (I planted more). A lot of my squash is going wild. Every day growing about 4 inches.

My garden still seems to be a bed and breakfast for the deer. But they haven't done a lot of damage. Just a leaf here and there. I saw three of them today while weeding.

I am hoping to get some cedar logs and stumps for a herb garden I am working on up here today. Maybe I can get my younger siblings to come with me for a trek in the woods.

God bless! Have a merry fourth (I know it was yesterday, but some are celebrating it today) of July!

English Vintner

p.s. Almost forgot the recipe. :) Tell me if you try it!

Carrot Bread From the Kitchen of Zachariah English

2 eggs
3/4 c. brown sugar
1/3 c. oil
1/2 tsp vanilla, 1/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice, 1/4 tsp grape fruit extract

1 1/2 c. whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
zest from one orange

1 c. grated carrots
1/3 c. raisins
1/3-1/2 c. crushed pineapple

Mix eggs, sugar, oil, and extracts together. In separate bowl mix flour, soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, zest. Combine the two, stirring just until mixed. Fold in carrots and raisins. Pour half of the batter into greased 9x5 pan. Mix together 2TBS of cream cheese with 1TBS milk and heat to soften, once warm add a little flour. Spread this mixture on top of the batter, pour the rest of the batter over top. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar on it and dot with walnuts.

Bake at 350º until well browned, 40 min to and hour. Makes one loaf, or a dozen small muffins. If making into muffins reduce the baking time to about 12-15 minutes.

Artisan Bread

I have been making Artisan Bread lately. My definition is simple ingredients, usually but not always crisp crunchy crust, and usually fancy looking.

The real definition is bread made by hand, at home.

What I really like to do is do a preferment, type method, usually overnight. So, I mix up usually all the dry ingredients, minus most of the flour and anything liquid besides water or milk.

So I mix up usually 2 cups of water with 3 cups of flour, and about a tablespoon of yeast, 2 tsp. of salt, and a little sugar for the yeast to eat.

Than, in the morning I mix in the rest of the flour, and or egg or oil and and kneed it. Though lately I have been using a method to get the crust crispy which means I leave the dough somewhat sticky. After I let it rise once I shape it into loaves put them on the pan and let them rise, than right before I put them in the oven I brush them with egg or milk if I want it, and or make slashes on the top.

I usually have a pan of water in the oven while it is warming. I than bake the bread usually at 400ºF or higher, for a crispier crust. For the last 5 minutes I turn the oven off and get the moist air out of the oven, I take the bread off the stone and directly on the rack. After 5 minutes I take it out and let it cool completely.


Now, on to gardening and other.

Last night I made some artisan pizza dough and it was really good! Than we went to Pops in the Park. We played Rook while we listened to the concert.

I got up at 5:40 this morning. Read my bible and prayed, came down, made a cup of coffee and went down to the garden. I did a lot of weeding and picked a few blackberries for breakfast. :) I turned the compost pile, turning the middle compost pile onto the right stack.

I finally came up at 8:00am and got a bowl of granola. I got some water and went back down. I weeded for another hour. Came up, had devotions with the family and figured out what I needed to do.

Since then I harvested three zucchini , three cucumbers, and some oregano.

I made a dog food and water bowl thing. Not sure how to explain it, but I made basically a box that is rectangular, the top has to holes where the dishes sit down in. I put the dog food down beneath and the two bowls on top. It is great, and was fun to make.

I made some more bread today, I made some yesterday also for lunch. I'm into making bread a lot arn't I? :)

Anyway, not sure what else is planned for the agenda. Hopefully do some more gardening work, and pick some blacberries. Mix up some sticky bun dough. And some other jazz. :)

Have fun everybody, and a blessed Lord's day tomorrow!

Cheers!
English Vintner

Garden Update

Well, it has been a little while, since I last posted. But here I am again. Sitting down, eating a fresh blackberry muffin just minutes from the pan. You might be wondering where I got the blackberries, and I would respond and tell you. Up past the fence on our property along the bank of the highway we have wild blackberries. The canes are by the hundreds, and so are the berries! I think we have been picking for the last week or two. We either go in the early morning or evening, to beastly hot to do in the day time. I think I have picked a total of 1.5 gallons (translate it into cups). The others in my family have picked probably about equal to it.

So, we have gotten a good number of berries, and all for free! It has been great, I only wish we had known about this sooner. But, we didn't have a garden down by the fence to draw us near. Also, my cousin and I did a lot of clearing out near the blackberries, we cut down a lot of tall trees (I'm surprised no police man was driving by and stopped us! yipes! :). It probably helped produce this years berries even better, though I would have welcomed the shade!

Two days ago I got together 10 cups of blackberries. I was going to make blackberry jelly. Why? Because I have never made jelly, and I thought it would be fun, mostly. So, I cooked them up, mashed them, and than put it all in cheese cloth I have and let it drip. I let it drip from sometime in the afternoon, to the next morning, yesterday morning. I than poured the juice into a pot and boiled it. I boiled it until the temp. was 8-10ºF higher than the boiling temp. of water. So, at that point (it took a lot of boiling for 3 cups of juice!) I took it off the stove and ladled it into one pint jar, and than the rest into another pint jar, about 3/4 a cup. I put a canning lid on the full pint and put that away. The other I just left uncovered into the fridge. Mean while, with the pulp from the blackberries I put into another pot, added some dried grapefruit peel, a little lemon juice, and some sugar, and some juice we had. Cooked that up, when it was real hot I spooned it into our apple sauce 'maker'. I put it through that and that took out most of the seeds, or else made them small enough that you cannot taste them as well. So, I was able to blackberry jam and jelly out of it! I thought it was sweet! And because I used enough sour blackberries I didn't need pectin. Now, the jelly in the canning jar actually looks more syrupy than the jelly in the fridge, so we will see if that is syrup or jelly. But the stuff in the fridge really set up just like jelly! Just blackberries and sugar!

Anyway. Garden.

My zucchini are doing great. The first ones seem to be peaking in production, so I am glad that I have six more close behind them bearing fruit. I also have round zucchini I got from a friend, and that should be starting to flower in a couple weeks. So, hopefully I will be set with zucchini for the season. My beans are doing well. I pick enough for a meal every day or two. Though, my production is probably at about peak from the ones that are bearing beans. But I have pole beans that are flowering now. I went to Lowes yesterday and picked up two packets of green beans, radishes, and cucumbers. I think in a week or two my cucumbers will be peaking, so I want more cucumbers. So, I planted another plot of green beans. Mostly one whole packet, about 90 beans. And probably in a week or two I will plant the other packet. They say 60 days till harvest, but I am finding that hard to believe, 60? I mean, I guess they are pole beans.

I planted more cucumbers, not using up even a fourth of them. I hope to keep planting every week or two for the next couple.

Next year I plan to start my beans earlier, and I know which ones I want to do. My shelling beans are about ready to pick.

I have 3 acorn squash on one vine! I have been able to monitor more of the vines we planted with all the blackberry picking. I would say about half made it, half or less. Mostly lack of water is the reason why they didn't make it. Next year I want to do the same, except maybe add tomatoes to it. So that I will have tomatoes and squash and such up by the blackberries.

Tomatoes, none ripe yet, though I probably have over 30 green ones! Thanks to my cousin and a friend at church! I have never really intentionally planted tomatoes. They either came up from the compost, or I picked up a plant at Burger King. I get one almost every year! :) Right by the dumpster, a tomatoe seed sprouted! :)

Corn. The biggest stuff is 2-3 feet high. I have three plots of it, and the stuff that is in full sun is the smallest, partly because it was planted last, partly it needs watering and mulching more than I have given it.

I harvested most of my leaf lettuce last night for supper. I am surprised it has lasted this long. Though, with it being small, and mostly in the shade, thanks to the zucchini, I think that helped a lot.

My parsnips and onions are HUGE! Both are getting near 24 inches tall! My carrots are doing well also. Most of my brassica is bolting. :( All except the cabbage I think. So, I need to compost all that. Next year if I could get most of it out about a month earlier, even 3 weeks, I think it would be enough. Though, we had a pretty warm spring early on, even though we had a severe winter. We had a harsh winter that was fairly short, and a hot spring.

I am selling cucumbers, 10lbs of zucchini, and beans to a friend today! So, that is cool.

Well, I guess that is about all. I could go one, but I think I need to eat breakfast with my siblings and get the day started! :)

English Vintner

Gardening

I harvested 4 cucumbers early this morning. I then cleared away the weeds (I have my cucs growing on the property fence behind my greenhouse) and hoed it, keeping it cleared of weeds.

Maybe it is because I don't have to do much hoeing that I enjoy it so much. I really enjoy hoeing around plants and such. But, the method I use doesn't really offer me a whole lot of space to hoe because I plant my plants close enough together that all the weeding is done by hand because a hoe won't fit inbetween the plants.

Later this afternoon, around 3pm I went back out. I planted the rest of my corn that I had. I am planning on doing the three sisters, except it will be two sisters cause I don't have beans to plant with the corn. So, it will be corn in mounds and squash growing around. I planted most of the corn in mounds in one terrace, and than I did one row of it on the next terrace up. Mostly because it will provide some shade, and look nice. I think I have enough other corn to keep us going. :) If I get half of what I plant it will be plenty. I think I have planted 500 corn stalks. About 200-250 were planted in a 2x20ft row behind the strawberries. And than I planted some where the lettuce was. And than I planted a small patch in one of the terraces we made, and than another spot. So, I have it in four different places. I think the first ones will be ready to eat mid August, and than I planted the other ones a week later, 2 weeks later, and than 4-5 weeks later. So, we will be getting corn late into the year.

I planted some summer lettuce when I planted some of the corn, and that is coming up. I still have some leaf lettuce left, it seems to be doing alright. It is on the other side of the zucchini, so it gets a fair amount of shade.

I watered the corn I planted. I than ate two black raspberries, it was my reward for gardening. It was the first time I had ever had a black raspberry, I like them. :)

I mounded some of the potatoes I planted. I have them planted in a square and sectioned off into four sections. Two of the sections have quite a few potatoes, the other two are not doing so well. I wonder if a lot of them rotted in the ground? Anyway, I mounded it with compost and leaves. I hope to get to the other section soon as well.

I did a lot of weeding, mostly in the potato plot and around paths.

Well, I can't remember what else I did, though, I did cut some oregano. Maybe we will go blackberry picking this evening!

Till next time!

English Vintner