Monday, August 31, 2015
Solar Water Boiler
Last week, Abe finished installing a solar water boiler on the roof of the town house’s bathroom. It is a unit that comes with 10 vacuum tubes (which heat the water, even on cloudy days), a frame, and a 30 gallon tank. It took him two days to install and plumb, and cost $250 total.
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Solar Water Boiler
Sunday, August 30, 2015
Rabindranath Tagore
Saturday, August 29, 2015
Friday, August 28, 2015
John Burroughs
Thursday, August 27, 2015
Wednesday, August 26, 2015
Charles Lindbergh
Tuesday, August 25, 2015
Monday, August 24, 2015
Sunday, August 23, 2015
Saturday, August 22, 2015
R. Buckminster Fuller
Friday, August 21, 2015
Thursday, August 20, 2015
Wednesday, August 19, 2015
Stephen Gardiner
Tuesday, August 18, 2015
Our Property
Here’s our hill in 2007.
And here it is now.
Every year we get a little more done, and our place is slowly turning into the dreams we have for it.
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Our Property
Monday, August 17, 2015
Tire Toys
With an old tire, cut in half, a piece of square tubing, and a couple of pieces of scrap lumber, he made a teeter-totter and a “horse”.
It only took him a couple of hours, and the kids got to help, which they really enjoyed.
They love the toys, and have already spent a lot more time playing with them than it took to make them. A great little project.
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Tire Toys
Sunday, August 16, 2015
John Webster
Saturday, August 15, 2015
Karl Wilhelm Friedrich Schlegel
Jam and Jelly
We have one young plum tree that produces so heavily that we cannot keep up with eating the fresh fruit. We all do our part, especially the boys, who are constantly picking fruit and stuffing their faces, but it’s not enough.
The tree in question is an Italian plum, which is the variety used for prunes, so we’ll definitely have to dry some as well, but in the meantime we figured we’d make jam.
Plum Jam
We used about 54 plums and turned them into four pints of DELICIOUS jam. Here’s the recipe:
- 3 lb plums, washed and de-stoned
- 2 cups sugar
- 1 tbsp lime juice
- 1/4 tsp salt
- Fill a canning pot with enough water to cover the jars with an inch or two of water.
- Heat the water, with the clean jars and lids inside to sterilize them. It takes a while to heat this much water, so best to get it going before you start on the fruit.
- Combine all ingredients in a pot over high heat.
- Bring to a boil, mashing with a potato masher.
- Stir frequently until the mixture clings to a spoon and falls off slowly (about 15 minutes).
- Spoon the hot mixture into jars, wiping the sides and rims with a clean cloth.
- Finger-tighten the lids.
- Lower the cans into the canner, and bring to a boil.
- Once the water is boiling, start your timer. We boiled them for 15 minutes (we live at an elevation of 6300 - less time is required for lower elevations).
- Remove jars and cool. Check the seal.
Mint Jelly
While we had the canner going, we also tried out some mint jelly, to fill up the space. We planted mint last year throughout the forest garden and it has taken over. It doesn’t actually die back completely in winter, but there is less, and I usually reserve it for cooking. So, we decided to try out a mint jelly recipe. It turned out great, and we can use it in the winter months on pancakes and the like, or just add it to water as a tea. If we had access to lamb, I would make mint sauce as well, as that was one of my favorite dishes when I lived in England (my grandmother, Pam, is an excellent cook and produced countless delicious meals, but her roast lamb with mint sauce was one of the best and holds very fond taste-memories).
This recipe makes 2 half pint jars.
- 3 cups, tightly packed, mint
- 5 cups water
- 2 cups sugar
- 3 tbsp low sugar pectin
- 1/2 tsp butter
- Wash the leaves and stems, and crush or chop them finely.
- Add the mint and water to a pot and bring the mixture to a boil.
- Remove from heat, cover and let stand for 10 minutes.
- Strain off the the mint (using cheese cloth or nylon).
- Measure 4 1/2 cups of the tea and put it into a pot. If you want it to come out green, you can add two drops of food coloring.
- Mix a 1/4 cup of sugar with the pectin and add it to the tea. Mix well.
- Add the butter to reduce foaming.
- Bring the mixture to a rolling boil on high heat, stirring constantly.
- Add the rest of the sugar.
- Return to a rolling boil and boil for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
- Pour into hot jars.
- Finger tighten lids and lower into the canner.
- Once the water is boiling, process for 10 - 15 minutes.
The kids have been so excited with all the jelly, and have wanted pancakes or biscuits every day. We had two half jars of jelly and jam, which went straight to the fridge instead of being canned - those jars are now empty, after only two days. We have had to explain to them that the purpose of canning is to save your produce for winter when there isn’t any fresh fruit - they are having trouble with the concept!
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Jam and Jelly
Friday, August 14, 2015
Luis Barragan
Nicholas Culpeper
Ruth St. Denis
Air-layering
There are many ways to grow trees, depending on which type you’re talking about, and Abe has been trying them all.
Planting from seed is slow, but effective, for the ones that come true (are like their parents). This is generally the method we choose for the native trees, which we plant mainly to reforest our hill. For example, last year, when the oaks produced a lot of acorns, Abe and the boys walked all over the property planting seeds along the contours. Not all of these will make it, but some will, with no further effort or water from us. Another good reason for planting seeds is when you can’t find the live plant - ordering a seed online is sometimes the only way we’ll find some of the varieties that we want in our forest garden.
Another form of propagation is to take cuttings and root them. We’ve had some success with this method, but not as much as we would like. Abe has made a propagator, but it is still a work in progress, ironing out kinks in both temperature and humidity control. It’s faster than seeds, but involves quite a bit of time and care. We plan to build a greenhouse porch onto the house at some point, and that space will be almost entirely dedicated to our budding nursery (though a spot will be saved for some chairs and hammocks!).
We also have trees that produce shoots from their roots. We have dug these up and put them in pots. We’re not entirely sure what they are, as we bought the trees originally from a nursery and they may have used a different root stock than the tree that grew. If this is the case, we will just draft the variety we want onto this root stock, as they did.
Air-layering is the latest method that we’re trying out. You basically cut the bark off a limb, add root hormone to the wound, and surround it with moist peat moss. Roots will form within the ball of peat moss and you can then cut the limb off the tree and plant it. The huge benefit of this system is that you can combine your pruning with producing more trees. If you have to prune a large limb, you also get to start off with a pretty big tree. Air layering also has the benefit of starting with mature trees, so there is no waiting for fruit, like with seeds.
The other day, Abe did a test on two trees, an apricot and a mulberry. It’ll take a couple of months to see how it works, but if it does, we will be air-layering all over the place! We’ve already come up with a few ways to improve our technique, and once we’ve got it all perfected, we’ll do a full how-to.
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Air-layering
