Weather Prediction

I think this video is pretty cool. I am very fascinated with a lot of the old almanac stuff about weather prediction, most is based on where the stars and planets, moon, and sun are lining up. For more info on that I am sure you can look up and find some old almanacs online and read about some of the weather predictions. One was a guy predicted 11 months in advance where a storm would hit, and what time. He was 7 hours off and 100 miles off from the city! Thats pretty close! That is obviously not just a guess. You can't be THAT good at guessing. Another one, though not confirmed is a some predicting in January, snow in July (in ME). Here is the video to Wooly Bear Worms Predicting Winter: http://www.accuweather.com/video/1683763362/tropical-outlook-paula-shows-signs-of-weakening.asp

It rained today. Probably less than half an inch, though a few places may have gotten more. However, we have had dry winds come in and dry it all out. They are talking about fire warnings in the county we are in. Speaking of fire warnings, did you know that for every 1% increase of o2 in the air, the chance of a natural forest fire rises 70% !?! (Just learned that in Chemistry : )

My cider is fermenting well. Lots of bubbles coming up. We made over 1 gallon yesterday of sweet cider. I got another quart from it by pressing it, leaving it for several hours, and tightening it down more. It is cooling down again, it had warmed up slightly in the past week, but it is cooling down. Probably partly do to the rain we had, and then the evaporation from the wind drying it out, creating a more cool temperature. Which means I am going to be up early tomorrow to see the horizon. I love it when it is cool like this. I love a good walk in the woods.

I harvested 4 red vine ripened tomatoes today. I also picked half a dozen green ones to bring inside to ripen. I think right before the frost I will bring in all the green tomatoes. Maybe make some chutney, but also store the green ones to ripen slowly throughout the winter. They are not like vine ripened tomatoes, but the beat the store bought ones.

I planted more fava beans today. In the bed just below where I planted the others. I planted them closer this time. One of my fava bean plants died, either by accident or what a mole came along and chewed it! However, that is about the only loss I have had to moles. Though they are probably eating my earth worms. Which contrary to what my cousin in law says, I believe earthworms are important to have in the compost and in the garden, due to reading a long story about a large homestead where everything was eaten by earthworms in a long 50x100ft pit.

I also planted more leaf lettuce. The great thing about leaf lettuce is that you can start cutting at 6 inches or less and keep cutting. You don't have to do spacing (you can, and get more of a 'head', but I don't bother), just sprinkle it on. I planted two spots of 18" by 2.5 ft.

Getting my posthole digger I dug a hole, right by the shallots. I wanted to see how easy it is going to be to dig these holes for the Whizbang Squash secret. The top 12 inches were that nice sandy top soil, but than I hit clay. Not pure clay, but clay none the less. However, it was not that difficult to dig a hole 18" deep in less than 10 minutes. I didn't want to waste the effort of digging a hole for nothing, so I plucked out a lambs ear plant (they have sprung up everywhere) and put it down in upside down with a few other weeds. I than put a little topsoil on it, than filled it back up with the nicely ground clay. I will say, a post hold digger makes great dirt for potted plants and such, no clumps, especially when it is harder soil, that it just sorta scrapes away at.

My wheat is almost ready to harvest. I'll probably just pluck out all the stalks that have the wheat bring them into the garage in a bucket, bring each head in between my two hands, rub together to get the outer husk off. I will probably just save it for seed. Not really enough to do anything with, though it would be fun. I can't wait to see what my sweet potatoes will have done.

Oh, and before I go. If you are interested in Winter Squash, Johnny's has a great selection, you can click on each variety and see what they are like, how they grow etc. Also check out there pumpkins, they have tons of varieties. http://www.johnnyseeds.com/search.aspx?SearchTerm=winter+squash

English Vintner

Planting

Coffee was good this morning, strong (very, more so than usual), but I probably needed it strong, I only got 7 hours, and I am not 'over rested', so 7 hours right now is probably not good enough. I prefer a time frame of 10pm-6am sleep. Last night was 12-7:30

Well, I planted shallots. We had used 2/3s of them (about 60), and I planted the last 1/3 (29 to be exact) today. The bed right below the bed where I planted leeks, and garlics was where I planted them. I pulled a few weeds and dug it up about 6 inches, it is very easy to work with, sandy soil. I made a long row, about 18 inches wide. I than spaced the plants doing 2, 1, 2, 1 making a pattern, two, then one then two more. I made a hole, put in sifted compost, put in the shallot, about 3-4 inches down, covered with more compost. I really enjoy planting bulbs of garlic and shallots. Once the beans are done (I am letting them go to seed size) I will plant more leeks (I got 1400 seeds! for a low price).

I am really interested in winter squash and pumpkins. In fact, I plan on growing a giant pumpkin next year, I'm aiming for 1-200 pounds. The biggest one recorded was 1469 pounds! I think that was a year or two a go. So, yes, I am aspiring to grow a giant pumpkin. I'll probably grow it across the fence. I'll probably dig a whole 2ft down and 3 ft in diameter, fill with mostly compost, blood meal, and Sea Crop (and maybe ORMUS water, if I have my magnetic water trap up by then).

I think for main crops I will do these: Potatoes, Sweet Potatoes, Winter Squash, Carrots, Beans/Peas, Cabbage, (onions/leeks/garlics/shallots), and a few more.

We have 40 quarts of apple sauce. Enough frozen apples for 10 pies (not actually a whole lot, we'll probably use 4 at thanksgiving), and a few later on. We have 2.5 gallons frozen cider, 5 gallons hard cider, and some apple wine fermenting. I hope to make about 5 more gallons of sweet cider. And make some weak apple cider vinegar (from the pressed apple pomace).

Next year I may see about setting up a stand or sign for Pumpkins, Indian Corn (I might try growing some of that for selling), Winter Squash. And also have some other things from the garden. I would like to try growing a couple different kinds of pumpkins. Sweet pumpkins for pie. Jack o Lantern pumpkins for selling, and try a giant pumpkin. I'll probably do butternut squash, and one or two other kinds of winter squash.

So, that is the plan right now. As soon as we get a frost I will see about planting my fruit trees/shrubs, and hope they survive. At least this year I have figured out a few things: Potted plants in general are going to make more work than in ground plants. They dry out much faster.

I have not gotten my money yet from the fair. Once I do I will put in an order from Johnny's Seeds. The plastic with shipping is going to cost $105. And I plan on buying some row cover material (and buy some other stuff at a fabric store). And maybe some other stuff. I can't wait for next years growing season! I hope to get a couple tons of manure like I did this year. Plus if I get chickens, the manure from the chickens.

I have 2 years left of highschool. Then, if I go to Johnson and Wales for a cooking degree, 2 year, I would live here, because the commute is less then an hour (I think in general it will take about 40-45 mintues, depending on rush hour etc.) That means, probably 4 years here, with the later 2 being a bit busier. I am trying to figure out who is going to be my apprentice. No one has shown a DEEP interest in it, though I did not show much until 2 years ago. I am sorta thinking it will be Jedidiah. I am also trying to find an apprentice for winemaking. I'm sorta thinking Elijah, though maybe he and Jedidiah will share the load. Beekeeping and chickens? Maybe the bees will also be Jed. Chickens, I think most of the kids will want to help. So, these are things I am keeping in mind. I tried to get some of the kids to help me this year with gardening. Jedidiah helped the most. Elijah usually, I hate to say, gets tired out, and quits. Due partly to his allergies and health problems, which we are getting fixed. So, anyway, the kids say they want to play bobbing for apples. So, I'll go watch, and enjoy doing the sport! : )

English Vintner

Sunrise

If you haven't seen the sunrise in a while, I would advice you to schedule some day in the next week, and get up before the sunrise, and go to a place where you know you can see the sunrise, take in the beauty around you and wait to see the returning promise of the sun. It is a spectacular thing to see the horizon changing. Up top you have light blue, green, white, yellow, orange, red, purple against the hills. It might take you too long to see the sun actually come up, but seeing the horizon change is enough. The transformation.

While I like flat land, there is some beauty to the rolling land. Hills, and valleys, a 3D affect. Gardens on it have a 3D effect, the landscape is prettier, not only do you have the trees shrubs and everything else on it, but then you have the 3D of the land. It adds another aspect to it. My walk this morning was through the woods, up until I came to a spot overlooking an area, where I had a good view of the sunrise. After watching it for a few minutes I went down and came up several more times to other places where I could see it.


I found some good places for growing something. Places level, with only clump grass growing. My plan is to probably do winter squash there next year. My first thought was sweet potatoes, but deer like that, and generally besides bugs, most things don't like squash plants. Though, last year I did have that pumpkin vine that got nipped badly by that deer. But this year, I guess I had to many other tasty things for squash to be on the menu.

I don't take too many walks. My siblings often go, and in cooler weather my parents will go often. They walk around the neighborhood. I just don't really like that. Every once in a while I will get the urge to run, and so I grab an iPod and some shoes and run around the block (around a mile). I would much prefer a walk through the woods, or a run through the woods. I get a good bit of exercise going to and from my garden. From my greenhouse I walk 30ft to the creek, cross it (on the sewer pipe), walk 70ft up the path, come to the corner, walk another 150ft, up 3 steps, then walk another 150ft or so. Only I am usually running down or up to my garden, instead of walking. Walking if I'm loaded down with produce (usually when I have about 1500 zucchini).

I need a hedge. An evergreen hedge. A year ago I would never have considered a hedge, unless it was edible. But, an evergreen hedge will provide shelter to beneficial insects through the winter. I'm looking at getting probably 6 shrubs from somewhere (I don't know the price, so it might be less). I know one nursery that I like, it might have what I'm looking for. I want to plant the hedge so that it blocks more of the garden from view from our neighborhood drive.

I made 4 gallons of cider last night. Much to the shagrin of almost everyone in my family, I am turning it hard. They were pretty upset, the younger ones. But, I comforted them with "Well, now all the rest can be sweet!" I may take a quart or two, but I don't need more than half a gallon more. I also started some apple wine. With the apple pomace I added 4 cups of cranberries, boiled water with brown sugar and spices, added some lemon juice. Poured that and 2 gallons over the apple pomace, added some yeast and let it go! We will see how it turns out. Probably on the light side of things, with an alcohol of 4% is what I'm guessing.

We need to make 45 more quarts of apple sauce to get us through the year. And cut up enough apples for 10 apple pies I would say. We DEFINITELY want enough for Thanksgiving. What a pain it would be to go buy 3 bags of apples for apple pie at T-giving.

Last year, I bought enough cranberries to make 10 gallons of wine. They sat in the freezer and never did anything with them. Except gave them to the family, (yeah, I'm pretty generous, I also keep a store of sugar in my winery and the family takes it whenever we run out. : ) its pretty cool.

This year I hope to make some cranberry wine, maybe blending it with apple cider.

Well, I should eat breakfast, do some school work, and do some apple stuff. So, enjoy what God has given you, and praise Him for it!

English Vintner

Rose Hips

Rose hips come from roses. They form the fruit that roses make from the flowers that bloom in spring. They range in color from red/orange to purple/black. They are very high in vitamin C, one of the highest sources. They also have vitamin A and B.

If you have a rose bush, chances are you can get rose hips from it. I have a wild rose bush (15ft diameter) that produces beautiful fragrant white blossoms that last about 24 hours. They are great for bees, an excellent nectar source.

Some people harvest the rose hips in September or October. Some wait until a frost, saying that they taste better (like a lot of things, parsnips, carrots, etc.) I am waiting till after the frost, though I don't know how many will be left. I picked one this morning and it was green, and had a hole in it. They make great tea, jam, and many other concoctions. I will decide what to do with mine when I see how many I have. Did you know, the hairs from rose hips is used to make itching powder?

English Vintner

Garden Plans

I've been thinking, and planning about my garden.

I plan on concentrating a little more, and I plan on doing more 'staple' crops you might say. I plan on devoting at least 1/3 of my space (right now, calculated up to 1500 square feet) to potatoes and sweet potatoes. Of that third I plan on doing about 2/3s potatoes, and 1/3 sweet potatoes.

I plan for root crops to do: carrots, parsnips, rutabaga, radishes, and beets (mostly carrots, parsnips, and rutabaga)
For brassica: cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, chinese cabbage, and maybe kohlrabi. (I plan on doing 50sq ft cabbage, 25sq ft broccoli and cauliflower)
Misc stuff: tomatoes, peppers, melons, squash, cucumbers (I'll probably do less tomatoes, and concentrate on those few) For winter squash I plan on planting again above the fence, but using the Whizbang Winter Squash Secret.

So, I've drawn up a few plans for next year (I am doing a rotation of crops, not the same crop grown on the same space twice in a row).

I planted 24 more garlic cloves today. Along with 60 leeks. Next week I plan on planting my shallot bulbs, and more leeks and garlic. If I had onions I would plant them also.

Right now the plan is to get bees sometime in probably March or April, also about the same time I plan on getting chickens. It sounds like I will be quite busy this Spring. Though, bees, after the first week only need check up ones or twice a week. Chickens are going to be a little more time consuming especially at the beginning. If I get them early April I should be getting eggs before the end of summer.

Well, that is part of the plans for my garden, along with an update on what I planted. I am sure I will have more to post on plans for the garden.

See ya!

English Vintner

Apple Boards

Three years ago I thought up the idea for an apple board. And for the last three years it has served us well. We usually get 10-20 bushels and turn that into cider, apple sauce, and frozen apples. With all that cutting it sure helps to have an Apple Board!

The apple board measures 20 inches by 8 inches, with a raise of 2 inches in back. It has a 3 inch hole in the center which serves two purposes. If you are cutting up apples for apple sauce into a pot, or a bucket for cider, all you do is put the Apple Board over it, halve and quarter, and drop through the hole, saving lots of time. The second purpose it serves is as a place to put the apple before you have a chance to cut into it. For a big apple you put the apple into the hole, chop down half way into it, bring it out and chop down, all in on stroke.

The groove at the bottom of the board catches stray seeds, stems, and also collects juice from the apples, keeping your counter more clean.

If you are like our family having one of these is going to make chopping apples more fun, and save you time. If you are not satisfied with it I offer a full guarantee of the product.

An optional addition is to have something wood burned onto it, a name or initials. I also do custom orders if you want something else done to it, or if you have a specific kind of wood that you me to use.

These make great gifts if you have family or friends who do a lot with apples. And apples is not the only thing Apple Boards are used for, I'm sure you could find it to serve great for cutting up vegetables for soup over a pot.

For pricing email me at: english3zachariah@gmail.com (omit the 3 inbetween english and zachariah).

Cheers, for my favorite season, Autumn!
English Vintner

First Frost?

Right now it looks like our first possible frost is October 21. The weather forecast says right now (could easily change) that it will be a low of 34ºF, which means close to 32ºF where we are. But, 32ºF is a pretty light frost, and most of what I have growing can probably take a light frost.

I have pole beans that are growing for seed. Peas that are for eating. Raspberries that are continuing to produce several a day! Kale, brussels sprouts, some other brassica, cauliflower or broccoli. Some mustard (for compost bulk), basil! I need to get my basil in. I need to pot up a few plants and bring them inside.

I have not gotten my money from the fair, and have not ordered the plastic for the greenhouse yet.

I'm gonna try to make some more cider today. Hopefully with more help this time.

See ya! Have a great day!

English Vintner

Cider (hard cider)

Cider, or as the americans would call it, hard cider (the British call it just cider, remember America had a prohibition on alcohol that ended only 70 years ago) is easy to make. It is usually bottled in beer bottles, clear or brown, usually clear. More often than not in the big commercial companies they force carbonate with co2 rather than let natural carbonation take place. This is because naturaly co2 makes sediment

(My computer just made me delete the rest of what I had written, about 4 times as much as I just wrote.)

I'm pretty mad about it. I'm gonna summarize and say I started some hard cider. It should make an ABV of 6.3%.

Cheers,
English Vintner

Seed Saving/Apple Pressing

Zinnias, my first memory of them is growing them along the border of the garden we had (yup, my mom had a garden during the mid 90's up until 2001, when her family was too much to have a garden also, since I was not old enough to do much). We grew them I remember two years, but probably almost every year. They are beautiful flowers. Two years ago was when I got growing fever. I was into growing everything edible, no flowers or anything like that that you can't eat. Well, after doing quite a bit of research I am realizing that nature does best in harmony. So, it is best to have a good amount of herbs, flowers and fruits and vegetables growing together. So that nature takes it's course in the bees coming will be attracted to the flowers and herbs and such and provide shelter and care for them during the winter with hedges.

So, this year I planted zinnias. I also planted a few day lilies and some other flowers. I planted only about 20 seeds. From them I probably got several hundred blooms. At any given time I had dozens of blooms, orange, red, and pink. They bloomed constantly (and still are) since they came up. Well, I got the idea to save the seed. I mean, how cool is that? I think more people should be doing that, saving seed from year to year of certain vegetables, flowers and herbs. I'm hoping to get basil seeds from some of my plants set aside for the purpose. So, today I picked zinnia heads, several dozen, and hope to pick many more. Maybe I could sell some? Mail a few through the mail? I am germinating some right now, to make sure the seed is viable.

Cider. Well, I was getting a little discouraged about it. My disposal isn't working to well for me. I did remember seeing a video of someone crushing apples with a 2x4. In fact, Herrick mentions it in his Whizbang cider book also. It is definitely the cheapest, but fairly manual labor if you are doing gallons and gallons. So, today I decided to give it a try. I had the wine press from Kevin and Powell, and I didn't want to go through the whole week without using it. So, I swept out the front of the garage real well. Set up the press, scrubbed a 5gal. bucket, got a 2x4. I then boil half a gallon or so of water. Brought it down and sanitized everything. The bucket, press basket, everything, I wanted to keep this clean. It feels good to keep things nice and sanitized with boiling water like that.

Once I had everything ready I got down my apple cutting board (have I told you about that? I should have an article on it, and maybe you will buy one eh?) cut up the apples into halves and quarters depending on how big the apples were. Some of the apples are smaller than golf balls! Some are bigger than my fist. I did about 4 inches of apples, then got the 2x4 and started crushing them. It is surprisingly easy. And it does a good job within minutes. You can't do too many at a time in the bucket, or it won't crush them very well. Also, it leaves the apple chunks rather large, so to minimize waste, we are cooking up the apple pomace and making apple sauce with it. It won't have as much flavor, but still yield a good amount. Once we run in through the apple sauce maker the pulp from that will go into the compost. So, out of those apples I cut up, less than half a bushel, I got 1 3/4 gallons of apple cider, and a full pot of apple pieces for apple sauce, and than compost.

The cider pressed this way tastes better than cider made from a juicer. A juicer leaves it pulpier. It doesn't press it, it sorta grinds it into juice. This cider is like the stuff you buy, clear and smooth tasting. So, if you have access to a press, let me encourage you to get a 2x4 and make a few gallons! You will be impressed.

English Vintner

It is COLD

It is very cold. Though, now that I think about it, it did this last year, or was it two years ago. Beginning of October first two weeks were quite cold, almost freezing. Then, it warmed up, and we had some good weather until about Thanksgiving.

However, I am not complaining, because it will keep the apples better longer. Do you know how long apples will last at 32ºF? They will last almost the whole year. That is the temperature that outlets keep the apples at, before shipping to stores every couple weeks throughout the year. At 32ºF the apple is just above its freezing point. Water freezes at 32ºF, but the sugar content in apples keeps it from freezing at 32ºF. Apples ripen twice as fast at 40ºF as they do at 32ºF. They ripen twice as fast at 50ºF as they do at 40ºF, so you see, I'm glad it got down to 33ºF here last night.

The apple grinder is taking longer then I would have liked it too (I guess that is what happens when you have a million projects you are doing, focusing on one leaves the others hanging). I don't think the disposal I have is going to work. First off, I don't think it is stainless steel, and I see rust and nasty stuff all over the interior. Second, it has a hole in the bottom chamber. So, I'm not sure yet where to get the next one. I think I can make a couple bucks selling all the copper that was in the motor, and I might find a use for this garbage disposal. Hey! Maybe I could hook it up to chop up food scraps into small pieces for my compost pile? To get it going real hot? Hmmmm....now there is a good idea! Anyway, I think I can make some money from the copper on the motor, and find uses for the disposal. However, I need another disposal for the apple grinder.

I would like to get some cloth to day for the cheeses for the cider grinder. Also if I could get my dad to hook up my motor that would be nice too. I'll probably call around the Restore locations and see which one has a garbage disposal. I might post on freecycle again, I don't know though. I've been keeping up with craig's list and they don't really have them.

My garden could use some help. Maybe planting some cover crops (likely story that one) and finish sifting my compost so that I can turn my compost pile.

Anyway, that is what things are at right now.

English Vintner