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Sourdough with Spent Brewing Grains.

May 17, 2020

Bishop Family, Healthy Lifestyle, Recipe , , 9 Comments

I have been diligently making sourdough during our social distancing exercise and I am getting pretty good at it. Yes, I am patting myself on the back. I searched the web for a simple and straightforward sourdough recipe utilizing the spent grains………. I’m a simple guy and I got lucky – finding a simple recipe within my skill set! See below.

Sourdough & Spent Grain Bread – based on a recipe from this site….pretty much followed it but just a few tweaks. https://noteatingoutinny.com/2010/04/13/sourdough-spent-grain-rye-bread/

1 cup sourdough starter
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour – I used 3 and it was just enough.
1 cup spent grain, still a bit wet
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 – 2 cups water – varies depending on how wet the spent grains are.

Combine the starter, 3 cups of the flour and enough water to allow the dough to just come together, in shaggy strands(I didn’t know what that meant so I googled for images). Knead about 5-6 minutes( I used dough hook) and let rest in a bowl, covered with a towel. Keep in a warm place and let sit for 1 hour. Fold in the mash with your hands and dust on the remaining flour as you combine it to help keep dough from being too sticky( I used my stand mixer and a dough hook). Form dough into a long, oblong loaf (or put it in a prepared loaf pan, I had a 5X9 loaf pan, sprayed a little Pam on the sides and coated the top of the dough with flour. I did a couple rounds of stretch and fold like do with my regular sourdough prior to the final rise. Let sit in a warm place covered with a towel for an 1 hour or so. Score deeply before placing the oven.

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. I used a big pizza stone that was also preheated. Bake for about 20 minutes, monitor, I used a thermometer to chick internal temperature. It took an additional 10 minutes to reach 200 F. Remove and let cool on a rack for 10 minutes before eating. My wife didn’t want to wait…… I held my ground and gave her the first warm slice with butter. She forgave me!

Drink Local and Drink Responsibly

Bishop

 

Spring Preparation – The Compost Pile

January 30, 2024

Bishop Composting, Gardening, Philosophical, Tomato Growing, Vegetables , , , , , 2 Comments

I hope to get a jump start on prepping the garden for a productive spring season. My 2023 season was OK but I let the garden get away from me a bit and grow “kinda” wild. My efforts to grow cucumbers and green beans were a total bust but the early part of the growing season was good for tomatoes and beets but not much of anything else. I have the beets seeds in the ground and sugar snap peas are coming up nicely. So………I spent a little time today prepping some good, well rotted and beautiful compost to properly feed the green babies.

My two compartment compost bins are set up for a lazy man’s compost pile. Most of the wood used to build it came from mine and my neighbor’s fences having been blown down by Hurricane Ike in 2008. I have since added some pallets as dividers and as fronts to hold the compost materials in check. We were dead center in the path and eye of “Ike”…..and it was amazing, The eye was 60+ miles wide and since we were dead center…….it was eerily quiet for well over and hour before the back side of the storm hit….my wife kept asking if the storm was over……..no Hun…..just wait…….So the 100 mph pinecones hitting one side of the house in the beginning were now being launched at Major League fastball velocity to the opposite side!!!!!! I did step outside in the dark looking up and watching for awhile as the eye passed…..I can scratch that off my bucket list…..actually was never on my bucket list but I can lie a little …..LOL
Lazy man’s compost…….I had transferred the top layer from this bin, not much decomposition yet, over into the right hand bin/compartment until the dark and mature compost in the bottom was exposed. “Lazy” in that I don’t turn the pile except once per year…..and that time is now.
I pull shovel loads of dark rich compost and dump them into a 1/4 inch screened box and shake, shake, shake, until it is all uniformly crumbled and ready to feed the babies I recently planted. The plants fed with good compost are really very happy and show great growth.
The finely screened compost is shown here in my wheelbarrow. I will spend bits and pieces of time going forward shoveling and sifting until I get to the bottom of this compartment…….It won’t be one of those projects where I will bust my ass and do it all in one weekend……..Nope…..it will be spread out through the growing season. The right hand bin is 4 feet by 4 feet and almost 4 feet deep! Holding potentially 64 cubic feet…..more than two cubic yards of material…..

There is still potential for another freeze but I have my fingers crossed it won’t be a hard freeze with much, if any, duration. End of February is my target this year to get tomatoes into the grounds. Bold yes, but why not…….And dammit I want some cucumbers too. I am counting on my compost to provide the growth essences to create lush and satisfying plants.

TTFN

Bishop

December 27, 2023…..WTH?????

December 27, 2023

Bishop Gardening, Tomato Growing, Winter Chill , , Leave a comment

Last freeze for my garden was December 25, 2022……WTH. I have blossoms on 4 of my tomato plants and one of the small one, Sweetie is setting fruit, albeit not many. Lo and behold, a few may even ripen. Freeze date records go back to 1889 here in Houston……..quite remarkable! Source – National Weather Service and https://spacecityweather.com/houstons-last-chance-at-a-freeze-in-2023-comes-later-this-week-and-its-a-slim-one/.

Quite a history here. I find it interesting that in the last 70 plus years the long duration between freeze dates is a year or longer, with 1932 being over a 2 year duration between freezes…..Hmmmmmm!!!!! Global what?????
A green Sweetie
A red one
Hopefully soo to ripen
Not holding my breath to see these set and bare fruit!!!!!

It won’t be much of a harvest but it does make me smile a bit. My lemons are doing well, beets are coming up and I will be planting more of them. The bees are flying when the sun hits the hive and when above 50ish degrees F. I have feeders on the front of the boxes but it is too cool to feed syrup. I am using sugar blocks that I make, about 1 pound each, and place them on top of the frames in the top box. Recipe…..6.25 pounds of sugar, 1 cup apple cider vinegar and packed into a 9X13 jelly roll pan. About 3 pounds per pan. Dehydrated and when hard and firm they are ready to go. Typically they last about 1.5 weeks. I do grab the back side of my hives and heft them…..If I grunt a little bit as I lift I am happy with their weight and won’t worry about them starving…..yet…..

Pretty active…..and surprisingly they are still finding pollen but I missed the chance to photograph it coming in. Trust me……a nice yellow pollen…..no idea what flower though…..Some dandelions are in the area. This hive and the one adjacent to it will be bartered and delivered to a friend this week end….Bartered for a day or two guided fishing ……, Thanks Clayton and Aurora. Yee Haw, the Redfish are biting.

TTFN

Bishop

Dear Bishop, I have cancelled the growing season for your 2023 garden! Sincerely, Mother Nature

August 30, 2023

Bishop Gardening , , , , , Leave a comment

Actually, she did let me have a brief, early tomato season. Earlier in the season I had bragged on two varieties that usually do not let me down in the summer……Well, Mother nature had the last and heartiest of laughs. Prior to the weather becoming brutal, The Brandywine and Cherokee purple were early season winners, the Celebrity began to fade as June heat and drought pressed down. The Juliet and Sugary I had high hopes for but………… I should have suspected Mother Nature had other plans for our summer tomato consumption!

I also tried direct planting cucumber seeds, for which I have always been overwhelmed with fruit. This twisted and brutal summer failed to allow cucumber seeds to sprout. I went to plan C, and planted cucumber seeds in pots and in the shade on the patio, thinking I may have got lucky……..Ha, ha, ha she said!!! I did manage to get several transplanted to the garden and they appeared to thrive and climb the wire supports but then, the evil laugh kicked in…..Maybe a handful of female flowers began to develop fruit only to have them shrivel up and become compost material……Brown material and not green material. I tried to fight on but ran into questions from the CFO wondering if the high water usage would be offset by fruit and veggies….I hung my head and said no. As a gardener it hurts to see plants wilt and die….Wilted and dying plants are the norm this summer!!!!! Everywhere you look.

I bought my friend John a nice weather station a few years ago as a combination December Birthday and Christmas present. I am posting his monthly weather reports for June, July and August through the 30th. It is a grim reminder of how fickle she can be,,,,,,,you know who I am referring to!

Now to add to my pity party, my bees had a good spring and early summer season. I finished harvesting in mid July and I was calling Mother Nature a few unkind words as I was suited up and soaking wet. My challenge was and always is, staying hydrated. For 2023 we were blessed with around 500 pounds of sweet honey. So, a bit of, I won’t say revenge, but maybe some toleration of “HER”!

Fingers crossed for some rain, reduced water and electrical bills and a tempering of the heat. I do want to get something in the ground for the fall. Sugar snap peas, beets, carrots at a minimum. My Meyer Lemon tree is still holding onto fruit, but that could change.

TTFN

Bishop

Honeybee Trapout For a Friend

July 1, 2023

Bishop Beekeeping, Healthy Lifestyle , Leave a comment

When it comes to rescuing honeybees I have decided to leave that for the younger keepers and those more willing to work off ladders and willing to suffer the Texas heat. I am willing to go round up a swarm out of a bush or off the ground or, as in this post, a low to the ground trap out opportunities. In this case the only entrance was at the base of a tree and lent itself to a relatively straight forward trapout effort for me.

So, what is a trapout? I had to laugh at my research for this blog post. There was one site that referred to the process as “glacially” slow…..isn’t that the truth. Three to four weeks is a likely time frame. It requires that all entrances to the colony inside whatever it is are reduced to one single opening. I had one several years ago before I narrowed down my acceptance of such jobs, that went on almost 6 weeks and about $40.00 of caulking to seal the roof line access gaps. Yes, I got them out, but no, I did not capture them. Success too many times is minimal but here in the south, chances for success are much better.

How did I do on this effort? I was very pleased with my one-way escape plan. The cone was as perfect as I have ever built. The tree lent iself to the process with it’s low opening and broad trunk base making the escape truly one way. Using the 1/8 inch hardware cloth is sized so bees cannot squeeze back in and the cone long enough and tight enough at the escape point to prevent a return to the colony in the tree. Returning bees are guided primarily by scent and prior orientation flights for the tree’s access hole. The cone screen material actual makes it impossible for the retuning bees to see the 3/8 inch escape opening.

First things first. I brought out a 10 frame deep box with 4 or 5 frames of drawn comb and the rest were undrawn frames with foundation. In a classic trapout I could have opted to add a frame of brood and nurse bees along with a queen but chose not to….It was a long shot, but I hoped I could get returning foragers into my box, adding nectar and pollen while awaiting the queen and attendants to be starved into leaving and taking up residence in my box.

I measured the tree base and cut a screen big enough to more than cover the hole with plenty of lagniappe to adequately force the bees out through the cone.
My damn near perfect cone – pat myself on the back!!!!!!
Box set near the base of the tree and prior to adding the escape.
All set and after an hour or two observing and 2 beers of some sort, I was pleased to see that bees could only escape through the cone and not find a way back into the tree.

Now, several week later I went out to observe. Clayton, the property owner, informed me that there has been no activity escaping through the cone for quite some time. I drove out to see what was going on. There were maybe a few hundred bees in the box, some the drawn comb was wet with nectar indicating that the escapees had been working but not any evidence that they had tried to set up housekeeping. Then I noticed some small hive beetle larvae slurping up nectar on some of the frames but not to the point of sliming and ruining the comb……Now scramble time for me. It became obvious that the colony did starve out and likely absconded. The few bees remaining were either stragglers or robbers. I did have a very nice swarm captured several weeks earlier and they seemed to be growing fast. I placed them into a 5 frame box and prepped them to travel and take up residence in the box at Clayton’s place. I should actually say, at Clayton and Aurora’s place.

The swarm capture from several weeks prior…..healthy size swarm.
Feeder in place and entrance reduced to help the colony manage potential robbers.

I added the previously captured swarm and purged the few wet frames and those with small hive beetle larvae with good frames. Now time to seal the hole in the tree, otherwise the scent will be a magnet to any bees looking for a home. Success in some ways, maybe not so much for the colony that absconded, summer is not a good time for bees to swarm……summer in this part of the world may be short on the resources they need. I needed a home for the swarm I caught so that is a win here.

TTFN

Bishop

Tomatoes and Planting Seeds

May 14, 2023

Bishop Beans, Beekeeping, citrus blossoms, Gardening, Tomato Growing, Vegetables , , , , , , , 2 Comments

My small varieties of tomatoes are kicking in. The larger red ones are called Juliet and they do really well throughout the hot and humid Houston summers. The small ones are called Sugary and yes, they are sweeter. Hopefully they will do well through the summer. None of large varieties have started to show color yet but, thankfully, even with the abundant rains recently , they show no signs of cracking or splitting. The 25 cent piece in the photo is for reference on sizes.

Juliet and Sugary bunching type of tomatoes. Both are yummy. The Brandywine, Cherokee Purple and Celebrity will ripen in the next week or so.
My cucumber support. I used 3 panels of 4″X7″ reinforcing wire used in pouring driveways. Cattle panels are used by some people but they are heavy and pricier. Market More variety planted here.
The fourth panel I used to create an arch entering the garden. I have planted Blue Lake Pole beans here and they climb like crazy. Should also make it easier for me to harvest. I will promise to provide some follow up as the grow.

I added 3 mounds for some Early Yellow Crook Neck squash. I haven’t had much luck with summer squashes in the past here in Houston but have not tried this variety. Also planted Mammoth variety sun flowers and they truly are Mammoth. Sometimes rising more than 10 feet and the seed heads are maybe 15-18 inches across. The bees adore them and our local squirrels do too…..LOL

I do have potatoes to harvest in a couple of weeks. Red potatoes and some Yukon Gold. I will clean out the beets…..some of them have become huge. I will see if they are worth salvaging. The sugar snap peas are done…..hopefully I will do better with the Fall plantings of them. The Meyer Lemon tree has set a good number of fruits and another round of blossoms has just appeared….not sure about them but we will see. Honey harvest is still 2-3 weeks away. We have a very long waitlist and they are our faithful buyers, I hope I do not disappoint them this year.

My Muscadine grape vine looks really healthy this year and as the grapes begin to develop and mature I will post photos. At this point in time the blossom heads are tiny, tiny and just now starting to open up. My other challenge with the Muscadine Grapes will be fending off the robbing birds and I suspect some squirrels get tempted. My wife won’t let me pop the squirrels with the BB gun but I do have bird netting as an option….time will tell.

TTFN

Bishop

First Tomatoes….Next Few Weeks Will be a Feast

May 5, 2023

Bishop Beekeeping, Gardening, Tomato Growing , 2 Comments

The small varieties are setting tons of tomatoes and today, May 4th was my first picking……not many but the gates are open. I guess Mother Nature whispered……”May the 4th be with you”……LOL. Yes, “kinda” corny, but I couldn’t resist. The surprise for me today, upon my return from babysitting grandsons in Denver, were the number of tomatoes set on my Brandywine vine…..I promise some photos later in a week…..maybe less.

Small and so very sweet.

I have quite a few beets that have blown up into to monstrous sizes in the past few weeks too. Hope they will still be edible. Sugar snap peas are almost done and now I need to get my Blue Lake Pole beans going. My two eggplants are blossoming but no fruit yet. The plants are robust looking so I think I may have some eggplant lasagna in the future. I was gone for 8 days up to Denver and the weeds have jumped ahead and will keep me busy for the next week or more.

Bees……next few days and into next week will find me evaluating the honey stores and looking to see if I can rob any to take care of my customers. wish me luck!!!!!!!!

TTFN

Bishop

Tomatoes to the Power of 5

April 23, 2023

Bishop Gardening, pollination, Tomato Growing , , 4 Comments

No, it is not an exponential equation but does reference that I have have only planted 5 tomato plants and each is a separate variety. Three of the 5 should be robust enough to produce well into the summer. The heirloom Brandywine will be coddled, buzz pollinated and well protected until the heat causes it to not set fruit. I have green ‘maters now so it won’t be long before they ripen. Images are from East to West in my garden.

East-most is a smaller fruited variety called Sugary. This should be one of the 3 to hold well into the summer
Next is Juliett, a small roma shaped tomato that can overwhelm the garden. Slice it and it makes a nice caprese salad.
Celebrity – A very good and prolific slicing tomato….not too big but very consistent into summer
Cherokee Purple…..I am anxious to try this one and know little about it other than seeing it at Farmers markets
Brandywine …..The flavor of this heirloom tomato is out of this world…..but….fruit sets with great difficulty. I have successfully been able to get fruit set by buzzing the flowers with an electric toothbrush, mine and god forbid I used my wife’s.

Beets are almost done and I am ready to add some Blue Lake pole beans. Bees, all 15 hives, are all busy and hopefully late May will be a good harvest. I have a couple of projects….rebuilding the compost bins…..a big project. Clear out all the junk lumber and wood that I have accumulated. Put up some trellis apparatus to help the cucumbers climb…..they grow so well here in Houston. Potatoes are also looking good this year….can’t wait to dig them up.

TTFN

Bishop

Blueberry Pollinators

April 4, 2023

Bishop Buzz Polination, Gardening, Healthy Lifestyle, pollination, Tomato Growing , , Leave a comment

“Surprise, surprise, surprise!”…… to quote Gomer Pyle USMC, and of course “Shazam!”. Yes honeybees are used but, they may not be the perfect choice! I am going to include a link to an article from North Carolina State University that will tell a very detailed tale of blueberry pollination in that state’s commercial blueberry fields and mirrors some of my lay observations on a local blueberry field where I kept some bees for a few years. The location was just a bit too far from home to effectively care for the hives. My observations got me thinking…..I had three strong hives on the property and when the flowers were blooming I saw more bumble bees visiting the flowers than honey bees……the honey bees seemed to be more active on the adjacent blackberry vines…..There had to be a reason of some sort!

“Numerous native bees (including bumble bees and solitary bees) are indigenous pollinators of blueberry plants in North America. In addition, honey bees are used extensively by growers to augment populations of native pollinators. Bees are attracted to the flowers by odors and sweet nectar that is produced by glands near the base of the stigma. Both pollen and nectar serve as food for the bees and their offspring. As insects visit blueberry flowers, pollen adheres to their bodies and is carried with them as they move from flower to flower. When bees probe for nectar inside a flower, they brush against the stigma and unwittingly leave behind some of the pollen they are carrying. Some species of bees vibrate each flower with their flight muscles as they collect pollen. This buzzing activity (known as sonication) shakes pollen from the anthers so it is easy to collect, and also tends to increase pollination” will occur.

Read more at: https://entomology.ces.ncsu.edu/small-fruit-insect-biology-management/blueberry-pollinators/

https://entomology.ces.ncsu.edu/small-fruit-insect-biology-management/blueberry-pollinators/#:~:text=Important%20blueberry%20pollinators,augment%20populations%20of%20native%20pollinators.

I wrote this several months ago and found it in my saved for future editing so I resurrected it just in time for Easter. I hope you like it.

Pay attention to the flower size compared to pollinator size……this is either a bumble bee or ? I don’t believe our area is native to the Southeastern Blueberry Bee! These big guys use a form of pollination called “buzz pollination”. Electric toothbrushes work well too……LOL

One of my honeybees I suspect from one of my hives nearby. Note the size difference to the other pollinator working the blueberries above.

Yessssss Buzz pollination is a thing and I have had success using it on heirloom tomatoes that do not set fruit when this Houston weather gets warm and sticky…..like way too often. I have used an electric toothbrush, sadly my wife won’t let me use hers so mine is the vibrating device that does the trick. I will be doing some of that today as my Brandywine Tomato is beginning to set display flowers. Check out one of my long, long time ago posts broaching the subject with an included video of the technique. It is very effective.

Volunteerism and Tomatoes
Enjoy looking back into my past.
One of my favorite bee photos converted to Black and White with an artistic treatment added.

TTFN

Bishop

Pollinators Are So Much More Than just Honeybees!

January 29, 2023

Bishop Healthy Lifestyle, Mason bees, Photography , 1 Comment

I have making an attempt to do some self talk and improve my numerous past resolutions to more regularly immerse my self in blogging, whether it be for the Backyard Farm one here or my “Bishop’s Beer Blog”… https://bishopsbeerblog. I actually love the catharsis that envelopes me when I put thoughts about my favorite things onto “paper” ….. I guess you can call words spread across this page as “onto paper”…. I need to thank Jennifer Moore, https://wayward-bee.com/2022/01/13/how-to-grow-bees/ for her article that gave me a push I needed to write this one……It has been in the planning stages for nearly 3 years or more. Problem with my mental filing system is that it has aged and probably not very well …… LOL. Now, be kind if you visit her site…..She is a Brit and my Australian and Canadian buddies have labeled me an “Anglophile” and it is not as a compliment. When I was being an active follower of her site I learned an awful lot of useful stuff and have a brilliant poster she put together on my dining room wall, Sustainable Beekeeping; https://wayward-bee.com/sustainable-beekeeping-poster/ Please give her a look…..Another big plus for Jennifer is that she is a lover of sourdough bread, as am I. Poke around on my previous blog posts here and you may run across a recipe for using spent grains from my brewing to make bread……most of the grains now go to feed the chickens at one of my nearby apiaries ……and yes I have digressed…..so where was I?

A few years back during the fall Goldenrod flow I grabbed my camera and macro lens to visit the bees foraging on the blossoms. Here in my area of east Texas the Goldenrod is a major component of what bees can put away for the winter…..the weather here is rather mild here but that can create problems for the bees too. Gives them false hope and they can start to brood up and then a freeze hits and they go through their stores rather quickly. This was probably Fall of 2019 or 18 when I first took a look and I was surprised at the variety of winged critters swarm on the Goldenrod! Something else that I will add about Goldenrod…..the heads of the stalks are, yes, brightly golden, but on closer examination the blossom heads are a collection of incredible dainty and small individual flowers. The photos below will include honeybees and you can use them as a reference against the blossom size. I was amazed once I got down onto my belly and closely examined and photographed the drooping blossoms. With that perspective I saw winged critters almost too small to see as they flitted around….

Apis……
Bombus…..
Scratching my head?
Here are a collection of the more macro sized critters grabbing pollen and or nectar
Bombus again
I won’t even attempt a guess
There are some that I can identify by species and then there are some where I just say….What the hell is that. I have actually seen this one stuffing the opening of one of the bamboo tubes with grass in my backyard winged critter house.

Next group will include the teeny and tiniest that I was able to observe. All of the photos in this blog were shot in October of 2021 with a Sigma 90mm Macro lens……and yes I am still practicing. Before I will go on with some more photos I will reference Jennifer again. Her “how to grow bees” post really addresses what we need to create a winged critter friendly environment. When I have discussions with folks about my beekeeping I get lots of comments about protecting honeybees. This allows my to bring the discussion around to the myriad of pollinators that very few people even realize exist. I have a little shelter in my backyard that houses Mason Bees through out the year……unknown to many is that they may actually be a better pollinator than honeybees – they are also known as Orchard bees. You will notice wasps and hornets on blossoms….their larvae need protein to develop of which pollen is the key ingredient. And others that I have zero knowledge of what they need and how they utilize it. 2023 I may make a concerted effort to polish my macro lens skills and attempt to catalog the many winged critters on the Goldenrod.

Multi user friendly plant
Interesting winged critter here
My guess is a fly?
some of the tiniest!
And maybe even tinier!

Hope this gives you a better understanding and knowledge about pollinators and not just honeybees.

TTFN

Bishop

Post Freeze Update

January 29, 2023

Bishop Beans, citrus blossoms, Composting, Gardening, Healthy Lifestyle, mulching, Organic, Potato Growing, Vegetables , , , , , 2 Comments

December 22-24 my garden experienced a danged good freeze…..well, the freeze is not really good for the garden, so a better term would be…….an extended period of freezing weather of hard freezing temperatures. What is considered a hard freeze in this area, Kingwood, TX just north of Houston? A hard freeze warning is issued when temperatures drop below 28° for 2 hours or longer. Well, we had about 36 hours and it required some effort to help our cold intolerant plants from dying……….some didn’t make it!!!!!

My wife had a good number of ornamental plants that we covered in an attempt to minimize the damage with some success. My biggest worry was my Meyer Lemon tree that was nearly destroyed in the 2021 major deep freeze……yes Texas made national news on that one. I managed to get some recovery of the tree after the 2021 freeze and was optimistic that I would finally get some fruit as it was beginning to blossom…….I was able to protect, marginally, about 1/3 of the tree. More on that later.

I had been attempting to get some succession plantings of beets, carrots and sugar snap peas started. We had run out of coverings for my veggies so it was plan L time. Plan L stands for leaves, lots of leaves and deeply piled leaves. I did have some success. One failure were the sugar snap peas that had climbed over 20 inches up the trellised string ladders. I will tell you that some of the peas had not yet started climbing and and they were lucky enough to be buried under a thick cover of leaves.

Carrots upon uncovering looked very, very healthy.
The beets are looking very well thank you!!!!!
After uncovering the beets, lo and behold, one of two snap pea vines were discovered. I hope to get them trained up the trellis this week. I also added 15-20 snap pea seeds that had been soaked over night.
Soaked for 24 hours in order to imbibe and be ready for the garden. A tip, if the seeds float in the water rather than sink to the bottom of the cup they will not be viable.
Next round of carrots emerging and they will extend my harvest a bit longer.
Another discovery…..young beet sprout that lay dormant until I removed the insulating cover of the leaves….they should also help extend the beet harvest.
Sadly I will just have a handful of surviving blossoms this year on the Meyer Lemon tree. Although I did not shoot a photo of it, but some of the damaged and dormant branches are beginning to leaf out…..gives me reason for optimism.
Oh…..some radishes…..don’t even know why I toss out the radish seeds, they are rarely eaten, except by garden pests but, they do stroke my ego a little because they will sprout quickly and visitors will compliment me on my green thumb…….as my chest puffs out. If they only knew…….

Looking forward I will add in some more beets, most likely another round of carrots, trellis up the peas, no more radishes and begin composting an enormous supply of fallen leaves. Just an FYI, I no longer till my garden plots. For the last 4 or 5 years I have just piled on leaves and grass clipping to suppress the weeds and add to organic material to the soil. In my humble opinion…..the fertility of my beds has markedly improved and the weeds struggle, they don’t disappear but the become more manageable.

In March tomatoes and peppers will go in. Maybe a week or too before that a couple of mounds of Irish potatoes will be added. Then a couple of teepees of beans of several sorts. I will grow Blue Lake and Kentucky Wonder pole beans…..last year’s crimson variety grew huge……and only produce a few handfuls…..going back to the trusted varieties.

TTFN

Bishop

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