Greenhouse - Part 2

Sometimes my enthusiasm outstrips realty. This greenhouse - would it be just one more example of something that wasn't nearly as much fun nor as useful as I dreamed? Oh, no, this time I was right on!

Everything is a bit late - contractors who put it up and installed electricity never seemed to hit a due date. But finally it is up and running. I'm eating radishes - at least a dozen a day, French breakfast, my favorite. The butter lettuce is wonderful. It's a little crowded, but it is working out well, a fresh salad ever couple of days.

The day before yesterday, I put in 12 kale plants, in the spaces left as I harvest radishes. They were started in the seedling tray, and once they were removed from those tiny cells, they exploded in size!

I planted two tomato seeds in every cell, except for a couple of things that my experience taught me never germinated extraordinarily well. Except this year! Wow! Germination has approached 100%. I'm giving away plants - was sure that I would have requests for a couple hundred at least. Not so much. They are late, and a lot of people already have their plants in. (Fools, I say. I've lived through killing frosts during Memorial Day Weekend.)

My kids made me promise not to turn this into a business. I didn't expect this many extra plants, though, so unless they are willing to plow up their yards, I will be selling plants here at market. The other vendors would not be happy with me giving away plants while they are trying to sell the fruits of their hard labor, so there will be a price tag on each tomato plant.

I had a commercial greenhouse on the farm, raised between 4,000 and 6,000 plants a year. Raising 300 is definitely in the "hobby" vein, and I am having a great deal of fun. It's still not too late to get some freebies, so if you want a few plants, respond to this blog and tell me how to get in touch with you so that you can get your plants.

Here are pictures from the new greenhouse in town, and from harvests at the farm. We planted around 200 plants at the farm each summer, and I just loved the old heirlooms - weird shapes, all different sizes, beautiful colors - and every one of them very tasty indeed.

Seedling tray in the hobby greenhouse in town

Seedlings potted up, going to their new owners in a couple of weeks.

Harvest from the farm. 

Offering tastes at the market

A Brandywine from the farm

Canning the market leftovers

Aren't they beautiful?

Bumper crop of yellow tomatoes

Getting ready to can

Tomato plate - tasty treat!

Seedling trays at the farm - thousands, not hundreds!

A lot of plants  were grown in the 18' x 24' greenhouse! I miss it.

RECIPE - Hard boiled eggs

I hate it when it is nearly impossible to neatly peel a hard boiled egg. So every time I read an article with someone's magic recipe for how to have perfect hard boiled eggs that peel easily, I try it. I am always disappointed. That is because they don't tell you the most important thing - a very fresh egg will NOT peel easily no matter what method you use.

Eggs are one of nature's most perfect foods. And they are encased in great natural packaging. If an egg is not washed, you can safely leave it sit on your counter for a month. There is a natural film on the shell that creates a barrier to keep your eggs safe.

A commercial egg is washed, and that film / barrier has been removed. So you might want to refrigerate them. Mine are on the counter in this great little red ceramic egg carton that I bought. (Just for fun I keep my chicken salt and pepper shakers next to it - a gift from my daughter-in-law Julie, who always seemed to know what I would like.)

Eggs ready for action!

I know, they have been washed, and even if fresh from the farmer at the South Bend Farmers Market, by law they must be washed. But they are gone from my countertop quickly, and I'm still alive. They are never out there more than two weeks. And when the recipe calls for an "egg brought to room temperature," I'm good to go immediately. (One caveat -- if you need to separate whites from yolks, a cold egg separates more easily.)

So back to that egg's natural packaging. In spite of it, an egg begins to shrink inside that shell from day #1. And that shrinkage will be the difference between an egg that gets mutilated when trying to peel it and one from which the shell is easily removed. After just one week of aging on the counter, eggs will peel better because the albumin is shrinking away from the interior of the shell. When refrigerating, give them two weeks. When I was bringing in fresh eggs from the chickens on the farm, I would set a bowl of eggs into the back of the fridge for at least two weeks just for hard boiling. Once your eggs are at least two weeks old, some of those egg peeling pointers may actually make a difference. And three weeks should be guaranteed success, no matter what method you use.

I love Ina Garten's show, the Barefoot Contessa. And I love her method of hard boiling eggs. It is a little different from any I have seen, and I do recommend it. Most supermarket eggs will be well over a week or two old by the time you get them home. If you want guaranteed success, try keeping them for at least another week before hard boiling. If they are straight from the farm, don't use them for hard boiling until they have aged at least two weeks. So here goes, this is Ina's recipe with a couple of small tweaks:

1. Put your eggs into a deep pan and cover completely with cold water.
2. Bring to a full rolling boil. Immediately turn off heat. (If electric stove, remove from burner. On my gas stove, I just let them sit there in the pan of hot water on the turned-off burner.)
3. Here's where Ina's recipe is different. Leave them sit in the water for only FIVE MINUTES!
4. Remove the eggs from the water. Don't rinse with cold water. Just let the warm eggs sit on the counter on a paper towel.
5. Here's where Ina and I differ. She says to wait only two minutes before peeling. I recommend waiting about five minutes. The first egg I tried to peel at two minutes didn't do too well. At five minutes, they peeled beautifully.
6. Now roll the eggs on the counter top with the palm of your hand. The shells will crack into a myriad of small bits.
7. CAREFULLY peel. They should come off pretty well.
8. If you are still having trouble, hold the egg under running water while you peel, my second tweak to Ina's wonderful method.

Great thing about this is that the yolks are still a beautiful yellow color, no green around the edges. They are on the very edge of still being soft in the middle, but they aren't.  They are just perfect!

Thanks, Ina.

Now I'm going to have another deviled egg for breakfast. Recipe for my favorite deviled eggs coming soon.

Deck is done, rain gage installed

Yesterday I bought a rain gage. On the farm, it was a big deal. Not so much here, even with the river going over its banks every now and then.

My objective this year (it's about time!) is to get the outside of the place done - finish up some structural things on exterior of house and clean up the yard and gardens. My deck is finally done, table moved back on, cooker cleaned up, tomatoes planted in pots. It's coming along!

We had quite a storm the other day, rain coming down in sheets against the windows. I realized I had no idea how much rain I had gotten when the storm was over. On the farm I kept copious records of rain, every rainfall recorded over nearly ten years. I kept a running total to record percentage difference in rainfall from year to year.

It was time to buy a rain gage! After finding an appropriate spot and searching all over for my drill so I could install it, I was ready for last night's rainfall. I got 1-5/8" here yesterday. And it is duly recorded in the new rain record sheet titled "Rainfall - Mishawaka."

I also invested in a new hedge trimmer, with a lithium battery. (I have cut through my last extension cord!) So yesterday the bushes were finally trimmed, and the front of the house looks much neater. I'll work on the yard down towards the river when the rain finally quits.  Lots of stuff around here needs a haircut!

Here are some pics of what is going on around here right now. The last pic shows my favorite tomatoes, Moldovan Green. They are grown from seeds from the farm. :)

Rain gage is on rail to left of lounge.

Bushes trimmed on front of house

Cooker is ready to go!

Table is back in service

Moldovan Green tomatoes - a little behind, but I'll have tomatoes soon!

Spring cleaning a little early . . .

It drives me nuts how I can put stuff off.  Yesterday I put together a list of rooms and closets, numbered them, and I am cleaning the junk out of them one at a time.  The deal is that I do it first thing, BEFORE I check email or do yoga or anything else at all.  Well, I do make a pot of coffee!  :0)

I started with my laundry room this morning, threw out dried out shoe polish, poured together two containers of the same cleaner that were both three-quarters gone, found bits of laundry detergent that I stacked by the washer so that I will use them up and can go back to using my homemade laundry soap, gloves and mittens that I only had one of.  (I may be short of cash, but I refuse to wear mismatched gloves!  There are plenty of pairs that I was able to mate when I looked in corners.)  Took me about an hour, and I filled a garbage bag about half full.  Oh, and I found a device I bought for the housekeeper, to clean the blades on my overhead fans.  Only he never uses it.  So I did that this morning.  I still need to get up on the dining room table and do some scrubbing on the tips of the blades, but the fluffy gray dirt is GONE. 

Tomorrow morning is cupboard tops in kitchen.  I will do inside the cupboards another day - they get their own day, small wonder that.

Last thing on the list is the garage.  Ugh.

UPDATE:  It was really kind of fun.  I've decided to do the counter tops  today, especially since I found two different kinds of granite cleaner in the laundry room - but that will not excuse me from moving on to the next thing on the list tomorrow morning!  I have a mission!!!

Now I get to put an "X" in the box behind #1.

Room by room cleanup – Laundry room

X

And #2.

Room by room cleanup – Kitchen counters

X

Then on to yoga, email and income tax.  I am in a good mood already.  

Laundry room after cleaning.

Only working shoe polish left on shelf

 Cleaning supplies organized

Oh, so pretty!  Granite polished and sparkling!

Sourdough bread in the works, on a sparkling counter!

A window seat you can sit down on.  :)