A year’s worth of garlic, part 2

29 Sep 2011 Leave a comment

by katsmama in environmentalism, food, gardening, herbs, Uncategorized Tags: , , , , , , ,


I saved the largest bulb of my “harvest” to plant, and ordered some from eBay.  The kind I saved from what I planted last year is soft-neck, which is ordinary grocery store garlic, and in fact, this came from an ordinary grocery store. The kind I got on eBay is a hardneck variety, which is supposed to have a different flavor (there’s a question- how different can it be, and still be garlic?) and also it forms flower stocks and blossoms, which are called scapes.

We got some scapes in our CSA veggie box a few years ago and I had never seen them before- they’re really interesting. You could wear them as bracelets to ward off vampires- long green spirals. I sliced them for stir fry, and they had a bright, super-garlicky taste. Growing hard-neck garlic  means you get an earlier harvest, something to pick before the garlic is actually ready to dig. This helps with the year’s worth deal. Once the bulbs in the basket have either been eaten or started to sprout, there is something to pick that tastes like garlic.

Yes, I know I could just go to the grocery store.

Why bother growing my own? Honestly, carbon. How much diesel fuel is used to plow, plant and harvest garlic in California, or China?      http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11613477  how much energy to ship it here?

I am okay buying olive oil, because I can’t grow that here in zone 5, but I swear, garlic grows itself.

Before the fall equinox, I loosened some soil, broke the garlic heads into individual cloves and planted them. I put them in an area where the compost pile was, so there’s plenty of humus. I’ll cover with mulch, and wait until spring. I won’t water at all until next summer, and then it will still take less water than most people use on their lawns.

Grow garlic!!!!! Seriously!

No photo on this one- better artists than I can take beautiful pictures of bare soil.

DIY yoga mat spray

19 Aug 2011 2 Comments

by katsmama in herbs, Uncategorized Tags: , ,


I’ve been doing yoga a lot lately, and one of the facts of yoga life is that the mat starts to smell funky. Research on the interwebs reveals that people spray with Febreze, or with store-bought yoga mat spray. Further research tells me that these sprays are pretty much alcohol, which kills most of the bacteria,and fragrance, which covers up the smell of the alcohol.

I hate the smell of Febreze, too strong, too fake. ( I had a student a few years ago whose mom put Febreze in his Christmas stocking. What was she trying to say, do you think?)
This is another of those non-recipe recipes. I hate to say this even is  a recipe, or a project, because it’s so simple.

Step 1: Buy cheap vodka.  You might already have some, I don’t know.

Step 2: Get a spray bottle (thank you, dollar store)

Step 3: Half fill spray bottle with cheap vodka, add tap water, add “some” drops of essential oil. How many drops will depend on how strong you want it.
Step 4: spray onto stuff that’s stinky.

I have a bunch of different varieties of essential oil; the last batch I made I used geranium and lavender- refreshing and “green”. Tea tree oil is also supposed to be anti-bacterial, but I’m not in love with the smell. I guess I’m picky. Peppermint would be refreshing, rosemary smells kind of like cheap men’s cologne.
Here’s the thing- if you don’t already have cheap vodka and some essential oils, you might be better off just buying some official yoga mat spray and just be done with it. Amazon has different varieties for around 10 bucks, but it strikes me that you can buy a lot of cheap vodka for that, and some essential oils, which you can use for other things.
For example, I use the oil for homemade handcream, and just adding drops to my bathwater. I use the cheap vodka for…cheap vodka. Nah, I’ve made homemade cherry liqueur, and limoncello.  You know, not just screwdrivers and jello shots.

Growing Flax for Fiber

02 Apr 2011 Leave a comment

by katsmama in arts and crafts, gardening Tags: , ,


I love it when two nerdy habits intersect- here, gardening intersecting with love of fibery, knitty, spinny stuff. I ordered some flax seed from Pinetree Garden seeds- these are slightly different from the flax seeds that get added to smoothies for their nutritional properties- the varieties used for seed production are different from the variety used for making yarn. The Latin is Linum Usisittissimum- I love it when the Latin name of a plant is so transparent- “useful,” anyone?

herbal image from "Chttp://chestofbooks.com/flora-plants/flowers/British-Wild-Flowers-1/Flowers-Of-The-Cornfields-Plate-X.htmlhest of Books"

I’ve soaked the seeds overnight, and cleared a little spot in the xeric bed that doesn’t currently have anything in it. I scraped away the mulch, and chopped up the soil a little.  I sprinkled the seed, and now I need to keep it moist for… 20-25 days til it germinates.What? That really seems like a long time- probably not a typo on the seed packet, though. If it were a wetter spring, I wouldn’t be so worried, but it has been super dry here, so it has to be me with a watering can until they get established.

The flowers may be either blue or white, on 3-4 foot tall plants, with light, feathery leaves.

At the end of the summer, I’ll pull the plants, and learn how to process them- I’ve already seen some videos made by a living history museum, there seems to be a lot of pounding involved. Can’t wait!

Work Day

28 Aug 2010 Leave a comment

by katsmama in Uncategorized Tags: ,


As much as I would like to sit back in my Adirondack chair in the shade, I’ve got to get some work done today. First project, patch the soaker hose that snakes through the shrub bed south of the apple tree. I’m thinking duct tape. I’ll let you know how that works out. I cut it accidentally when I planted Lady’s Mantle this spring. We got so much reliable rain this summer, that I didn’t even use the soaker until a couple of weeks ago, then I turned it on and heard the gurgling and saw the mud.
After patching, I’ll water, and weed- it’s always easier to weed when the ground is wet, although it is never really easy. I hope sometime this afternoon I’ll get some time in the shade in that chair.

I can rest in the shade later.

Beware- onion and tomato salad

04 Aug 2010 Leave a comment

by katsmama in Uncategorized Tags: ,


This would also be great on a pizza, or over pasta.

My kids wanted frozen pizza for dinner tonight. I was happy to make it for them, but didn’t really want to eat it myself. Tomato season is coming on, and I had a Walla Walla onion left from a party a few weeks ago.

I had marinated the onions in basalmic vinegar, olive oil and Vietnamese fish sauce, then I grilled them. My friend Grif came to the party early, and he kept snitching raw onions out of the bowl they were marinating in. I couldn’t believe he was eating raw onions, then I tried one. It was really good.

Tonight, I sliced the onion into wedges- cutting pole to pole instead of around the equator. I soaked it in cool water for a few minutes, to take away some of the bite. I learned this trick from Andrew Weil’s book 8 Weeks to Optimum Health http://www.drweil.com I love the book, although I have never made it through all 8 weeks. That may be why I am not in optimum health.

While the onions were soaking, I zipped outside to get some tomatoes and basil. I chopped the tomatoes, drained the onion, and ripped up the basil, and tossed them all together with some vinaigrette and salt. Paradise in a bowl.

Surprising Cilantro

11 Jul 2010 Leave a comment

by katsmama in food, gardening, herbs, Uncategorized Tags: , ,


I’ve been planting cilantro for years, enjoying the young, lower leaves in salsa, pad thai, and other yummy international dishes. I’ve always cursed when it would flower and go to seed, I’d pull it up and plant something else in its space. I even bought “large leaf” cilatnro seed, with promises from the seed catalog (oh, seed catalog writers, let me believe your sweet, sweet, lies…) that it was “slow to bolt.” Bolting means flowering and going to seed.
But this year, I let the cilantro in the boy’s garden flower, and it is lovely- cilantro is umbelliferous, cousin to carrots, queen anne’s lace and yarrow- beautiful white flowers that dance on the wind. Now, the seeds are forming, and once they turn brown, I’ll harvest the them. At this point, they’re called coriander, for some reason. I’ll plant some next spring, and use the seeds this winter to put in dry rubs, stir fries and maybe bread…I wonder if they’ll sprout, like alfalfa sprouts….that might be weird, actually,on a sandwich. Anyone tried sprouting coriander?

The leaves are called cilantro, and used in ethnic cooking

You can see why the type of plant is called "umbelliferae" the flowers come out of the stem in a shape like an umbrella.

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