Anyone who is going to be near Brooklyn on July 29th and wants to learn about SIPs should not miss this free seminar put on by our friend Bob Hyland.
Join us July 29 from 7-8:30pm for an introductory seminar on the hot topic of modern urban greenscaping using sub-irrigated planter systems (SIPs). You’ll discover how easy it is to grow all kinds of edible and decorative plants in SIPs. You will also learn about the enormous potential for new small business and green job creation in the field of SIP urban greenscaping.
SIP technology, much of it imported from Europe, was available back in the 1970s, but is only now being re-discovered in the US. Our current interest in urban food production has finally brought SIP technology to the forefront. We will cover the subject from recycled soda bottle SIPs to consumer product EarthBoxes with lots in between.
Benefits of using SIPs:
• Water conservation (as little as 10% of normal water usage) • Conserve nutrients - unlike drain hole planters there is no runoff • Tillable land not required - grow on concrete, a balcony or rooftop • Portable - move with the sun, season or land availability • Elevated SIPs enable people with physical limitations to garden
Bob has over thirty years of experience with SIPs going back to the days he ran a prominent interior plantscaping company in Los Angeles. He was a pioneering industry consultant, author and speaker at national trade conventions in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s. Last year he founded the Center For Urban Greenscaping (CuGreen) whose primary mission is education about modern methods of growing plants,
You do not need to be an experienced gardener or have a green thumb to grow an abundance of vegetables in SIPsSIP systems are extremely user friendly. Even young kids can grow food in them. They can experience eating vegetables right off the vine that taste like candy except these sugars are healthy and nutritious. SIPs are analogous to present day kitchen appliances. Think of them as the personal technology of food production, the coffee makers of food growing if you will. Rather than planters, think of SIPs as the plumbing that makes any watertight container a SIP. Sub-irrigated planters can be any color, texture or shape that you like. A clay pot or conventional raised bed can become a SIP once you learn about the simple plumbing that makes it possible.
The event is free, but you must register by emailing Bob.
When: July 29, 2010 from 7-8:30pm
Where: Gowanus Studio Space 166 7th Street Brooklyn, NY, NY 11215
While I can appreciate the practical beauty of our SIPs, they are a special kind of ugly when nothing is growing in them. And I'm not thrilled about using plastic, no matter how safe it is.
With that in mind, I made two large SIPs out of rough cedar fencing boards.
My journeyman carpentry skills were put to good use; it wasn't a simple project.
The first step was to mill the boards so the long edges were square. Then I glued, and clamped, them up into large panels using biscuits.
The water reservoir is made by lining the box with 4 mil plastic. The soil screen is boards drilled with 1/4" holes that rest on a wood cleat 3" above the bottom of the reservoir. The wicking chambers are strips of plastic cut from a 5 gallon bucket and then turned into small rings.
Each planter measures 70"x16"x14" and holds 6 cubic feet of growing medium. It took roughly 20 hours and $80 in materials to make and install both of them.
I'm about halfway done with a major project to retrofit my existing 30 Rubbermaid tub SIPs. Instead of the plastic bag cover and angular trellis support, I'm cladding them in panels made from inexpensive brown UV resistant tarps and cedar. In addition to looking better, the new design is much more functional. I'll have more to say about the changes in another post.
[Updated 9.25.10 -- There has a been some cupping of the fence boards because of their high moisture content when I bought them. It's mostly aesthetic, nothing that makes them fall apart. In the future, to avoid this, I'm going to use the more expensive kiln dried cedar.]
There are plenty of reasons not to cook a pig's head; I don't eat much meat anymore, and with so many other disembodied parts of the animal available, it's easy to avoid.
Most of us don't want to be reminded that meat comes from animals. Grocery chains don't display animal heads in their meat cases, judging that sales would drop after they made explicit the connection between pork chop and pig snout. How to square this with the fact that people have been eating heads as long as we've been eating meat?
Before I walk you through this, a Public Service ad: If you're eating the pork chop I think you should eat the head. Though I've eaten pork my whole life, I've only cooked one head; I'm glad I did. So now, with all the zeal of the recently converted, I hope that after reading this post you'll do the same.
[I'd like to note that there are no graphic slaughter pictures in this post. There is a picture of a cooked pigs head further down the page. At the very end there is an embedded slide show that contains 4 pictures of the head as it came to me from the slaughterhouse.]
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After watching a pig butchering demo given by Rob at Mado Restaurant in Chicago, I decided to make testa/headcheese. Mado's supplier, Slagel Family Farms, sells ethically raised and slaughtered pork. Better still they'll deliver it "free" to Mado, only a quarter mile from my house. You can find like-minded farmers near you by searching EatWild.
I've never cooked a pig's head before. Once I decided to butcher and use every part of the pig, figuring out how to use the head was the next big step.
Cookbooks and websites cover it in some detail, though none of them prepared me for the shock of opening the cardboard box I picked up at Mado. There's nothing I can say, or show you, that could get the rawness across. It's one of those things you'll have to experience yourself.
Here are a couple of ideas on how to prepare the head:
A careful deboning of the head prior to cooking gives you a single sheet of meat that you can roll up in cheesecloth and braise. Once it's finished cooking, re-wrap it in fresh cheesecloth and hang in the fridge overnight to firm up.
From there you have a couple of options:
One is to slice very thin cross sections and arrange them on a plate to serve as an appetizer, as you would prosciutto or other cured meat.
Another is to cut the roll in 1" slices, moisten with dijon mustard, coat in bread crumbs and then sauté in oil until crispy.
Chris Consentino has six short youtube videos showing what else you can do with a pig's head. Knowing that it's possible to eat poached and then sautéd brains with scrambled eggs is enough for me right now. I don't need to try it. Maybe down the road.
Mike Gebert made a terrific video featuring Mado's testa. You can pick up some useful hints from it; even if you have no intention of making testa its worth watching.
With all this in mind, I came up with a plan. I combined the recipes of Paul Bertolli, Michael Ruhlman and Rob Levitt of Mado. (Someone thinking along the same lines posted his recipe here.) After simmering the head with a couple of trotters, aromatics, herbs and spices for 3 hours, the meat falls off the bone and the poaching liquid has absorbed not only the gelatin from the pig parts, but all of the flavor as well.
You shred the meat and dice the cooked tongue, yielding about 2 pounds of meat. These morsels are drizzled with reduced stock and then chilled overnight in terrine pans or improvised molds.
Below are the two slightly different types of testa I made, ready to be served. In order to form a compact roll, I had to squeeze the air out, that in turn forced out almost all the stock out as well. The stock was poured on top of the meat in the smaller rectangular terrines, filling the voids nicely.
It is very rich, and packed with flavor. The word "headcheese" has all sorts of horrible connotations. What I made has no negatives: No unpalatable textures or tastes. It is delicious.
The pig's head and two trotters cost $20. From that I was able to make testa (serving about 15 appetizer portions), a half pound of cracklings from the skin, 7 quarts of intensely flavored gelatinous stock, and a half pound of rendered pork fat.
Click through this slide show to see the entire process. Photos #3-6 show what the pig's head looks like straight from the slaughterhouse. I hope after the initial discomfort of viewing the pictures wears off you'll go back and look at them again. I know I have.
When I was 11, each student in my class was given a pig fetus to dissect. It made me queasy, for a long while I felt a twinge of nausea every time pork was on my plate. Skip ahead a few decades--for the past couple of years I haven't eaten much meat for some fairly commonreasons.
Believe it or not, this is loosely connected to our rooftop vegetable project. Skeptics can skip ahead to the end of this post for the link.
[Also, I'd like to note there are no graphic slaughter pictures anywhere in this post. That was done beforehand, at the processing plant owned by the farmer. However, if you click through on the embedded slide show--it's innocuous cover photo is of a sunflower--you'll see pictures of an already dead half pig being cut up. Nothing bloody, but they can be a little startling.]
There are more than a few people who celebrate the joys of nose-to-tail eating by reading about it, travel the world in search of the latest taste sensation, or who fetishize a peasant cooking technique in their expensively renovated kitchens. In response to a world where the "social relationships between people are mediated by images", I've done some of those things--and more--looking for a way out.
One of the reasons I stopped eating meat was because I felt something was missing. On display in the meat case of my local market are the disembodied pieces of a gruesome process. Unsaid, ultimately only hinted at, is the (probable) suffering and death of an animal. My decision to use every part of a conscientiously raised and slaughtered pig that I butcher is, in part, a reaction to that.
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Like I said, I don't eat much meat. In spite of that this is a useful skill, one that I hope will be taken up by other amateurs like myself.
Here are a series of photos I took of a recent pig butchering demo given by Rob Levitt of Chicago's Mado Restaurant. They are offering charcuterie classes early next year and I'd urge anyone with the slightest interest to get on their email list. They'll fill up fast.
It's important to know something about basic pig anatomy before beginning. Helpful skeletal charts can be found here. Because that site is run by a Canadian butcher, the individual cuts of meat are different than those usually found in American markets.
Knowing all this, now what? One option is to buy a pig from Mado's supplier, Slagel Family Farms, and butcher it ourselves. We're thinking of hosting a couple of informal meals for 25 people using the whole animal and featuring some lesser known, though delicious, pork dishes--among them testa and porchetta--early next year.
Before breaking the pig into parts, you should know how you want to use them. From half of a 180 pound York-Duroc crossbred pig, my amateur butcher's eye estimates the yield would be:
20-22 servings of porchetta made from the saddle, which is basically the deboned middle third of the pig. You take the loin (not the tenderloin!)--think of the center of a pork chop, now extend that circle into a 24 inch long cylinder--wrapped in the attached belly (same as uncured bacon) like a jelly roll. Inside the roll are garlic, herbs, and spices. Truss the whole thing up and roast. Cut in 1 inch slices to serve.
Pork terrine - Maybe use the tenderloin as an inlay. Makes 24 half-inch thick appetizer slices.
Testa - or fromage de tete de porc/headcheese (ugh, what a name). Sounds hideous, tastes great. Uses the feet, head, tongue.
1 ham, weighing approx 14 lbs. Two ways of prepping. One is to brine it for a week and then roast it. Or you can make a salt cured prosciutto/dried country ham. That takes at least 4 months and a lot of know how. Either way it'll serve 12-15 people.
~ 3 pounds coppa. A dried pork product similar to prosciutto but made with the top of the shoulder.
~ 7 lbs shoulder. Includes the hock. What's left after the coppa is removed. Can slow roast the rest, or make sausage.
~ 3 lbs ribs. Make bbq ribs or freeze to use later. Once thawed, a possibility is to slow roast them in a stock made from the backbone, to which you add tomatoes, herbs, and wine. Pull the meat bones off when tender and add back to the rich liquid to make pasta sauce for 12-15 people.
~ 1 lb tenderloin.
~ 3 lbs "flank steak". Make fajitas, pate, or sausage.
~ 2 lbs fatback. Add to rillettes, terrines, or sausage.
~ 1 lb leaf lard. Add to rillette, terrines, or sausage
~ 3 lbs misc. scraps. Slow roast them with some of the backbone stock. When tender, shred them with paddle mixer, top with rendered fatback. You have rillettes--great on bread.
~ 2 lbs pork sirloin roast
~ 15 by 20 inch piece of pig skin, good for cracklings, cotechino, or to flavor cassoulet
That's a lot of pork.
This isn't being done to make money, We're trying to figure out how to cover our out of pocket costs while learning, sharing, and having a good time. The first thought was to serve the porchetta and testa at our dinner. The cured pork products might feature in later gatherings, while the frozen parts could be shared with the group.
We've been talking to a woman (Hi Anna!) who puts on (informal, low cost, ambitious) supper club dinners, trying to figure out the details. We like the idea, though some of the press makes them sound like people I don't want to be around.
[Updated 12.02.09, It's On. For two consecutive Sundays (January 24th 31st and Feb 7th.) in early 2010, we'll get together with 20 relative strangers and serve an entire (half) pig. Anna came up with a great menu based on some of the ideas in this blog post. We're butchering the pig on Wed, Jan 20th Thursday, Jan 28th in front of a small group. Email Anna at Turning Fork Supper Club for more details and to rsvp.]
If you're looking for local producers of humanely raised meat, EatWild is a good resource. Finding one, like Slagel Farms, that does the slaughtering/processing on site was important to me. Here's another fascinating story of a family pig farmer slaughtering and butchering his own animals.
To cut down on delivery fees contact a local restaurant who uses a farmer you want to support and try to combine orders. In our case, because Slagel Farms delivers to Mado Restaurant weekly, we can get "free" delivery.
So how is this connected to growing vegetables on rooftops, the subject of this blog?
It's another way to make meaningful connections while sharing skills and eating well.
What's the connection, if any, between rooftop gardening, my political droppings, and cooking? I'm guessing they feed off of each other in ways that don't need to be talked about here. Ultimately I find a kind of elegant beauty, a magic that isn't for sale, in cooking and growing food. I'm trying to apply that mojo to some of this world, so far with limited success.
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When organic lemons went on sale at our local market, I decided to take on a couple of classic recipes: preserved lemons and candied lemon peel.
Making preserved lemons involves covering them with lemon juice--at least one lemon is juiced for every one that's preserved--so you're going to have a lot of leftover peel. This means it's a good idea to both preserve and candy around the same time. Rather than waste the rinds, just cut them off before you squeeze the juicing lemons, setting the pieces of rind aside to candy after you finish prepping the jar of preserved lemons. (You don't have to make candied peel. You can also zest--and freeze the result--the lemons before juicing.)
For the budget-minded, this is one of those things worth doing yourself. It'll cost you less than $2, and a little time and effort, to produce a preserved lemon. They sell for $7 apiece, plus shipping. The candied peel is $4/lb, in this case it's almost free.
What's all the fuss about? To use the copy from Zingerman's -
I’ve always liked the idea of preserved lemons. But I get stumped at the same place you probably do: what do you do with them? You can research recipes and get an idea but I wasn’t truly inspired until I ran into a friend who lived in North Africa. “Oh! Preserved lemons! Can I have your jar? I love them in everything!” Everything? Simple enough place to start. I started trying what she suggested, adding them everywhere. Simply cut off a slice or two (return the rest of the lemon to the brine), dice and mix into your favorite sauces. Toss with salads. Garnish grilled meat. Add a slice to a martini. This is fun.
Preserved Lemons
I combined a couple of recipes: Mark Bittman's and 101 Cookbooks (she in turn copies Paula Wolfert).
The idea is to cover cut lemons with a mixture of salt, lemon juice, and spices and let this cure for at least 2 weeks. You end up with a salty, sour, and slightly sweet garnish that works with a wide variety of grains, vegetables, and stews. It's also great as a pizza topping.
After covering the lemons with juice, cover and shake the jar. Leave it out on the counter for 7 days, shaking once a day. Then put it in the refrigerator for at least 7 more days. Some recipes say shake it in the fridge, some not. It doesn't seem to make a difference.
This is a traditional North African process, and through trial and error became a way to store lemons long before refrigeration. I've read that the acidity in the lemons available to us could be different than those in traditional lemons, so there's a chance that mold might develop unless the finished product is refrigerated. Because of that, most recipes I've seen say to store the jar in the refrigerator.
Candied Lemon Peel
There are plenty of recipes online. This one isn't bad. Though it's for oranges, not lemons, the idea is the same. Keep a couple of things in mind.
It's a two step process.
First you boil the julienned peels in several changes of water.
The idea is to get rid of the bitterness, so taste after the third change and keep changing/boiling until it's gone. There shouldn't be any off flavors; it should just taste like bitter lemon. To get an idea of what you don't want, taste one after the first boil.
The second is to braise the mellowed peels in simple syrup:
I use 2 parts sugar and 1 part water in my simple syrup. I make enough to just cover the boiled peels, and cook at a low boil for 20 min or so in a sauce pot. The lemon rinds will become slightly translucent, absorbing the sugar (?), and then they're done. Drain them in sieve and let cool a bit. If you put the final dusting of dry sugar on when they're too hot, you'll just have a gooey mess. Lay them out on parchment to dry as per the recipe.
H2--thanks for all these great pics, btw--found out that candied lemon rinds are even tastier frozen. Curiosity has it's rewards!
More lemon preserving/candying pictures -
For more on cooking, check out my posts on my food blog, Kitchen Exercises.
Cooking, like growing plants, is such a tactile thing. How well either of them are truly dealt with in the online world is an open question.
All by way of saying I found this wide ranging talk given by the bread maker Peter Reinhart to be worth watching. He knows how to tell a story and his enthusiasm for baking bread is contagious.
Practitioners. That's the word Erik Knutzen uses to describe what we do.
It fits. Thanks to google, carefully crafted, intelligent, and passionate essays about the importance of [green, local food, sustainability, Factory Farming, global warming, community] are easier than ever to find. The trick is to put some of these ideas into practice. Big plans fall prey to lack of money or institutional power, small ideas seem to be completely useless in the face of huge problems.
That's where these simple planters come in. Made of readily available materials, they deliver real results with very little effort.
And they produce more than vegetables. There is something powerful in the simple act of growing a little bit of your own food.
Or, for that matter, planting a few flowers.
But back to the practical for a second.
We loved talking with Erik while he was in town and hope to make it out to L.A. sometime soon. Also, his visit was a chance to officially meet Martha Bayne, who wrote the Chicago Reader article about Earthboxes that started me down this path. And we all came together because Nance Klehm suggested we hold some SIP workshops while Erik was here promoting his book.
Last night, a small group gathered for a hands on workshop at Mr. and Ms. H2's urban hideaway.
She passed on these captioned photos.
Using the quarter-inch bit to drill the numerous air-circulation/root holes.
Bruce shows how to visualize the bottom of the top bucket by holding the set up to a light source. Mark bucket bottom and drill overflow hole about a half-inch down.
Packing the wicking cups (after slitting) with soil-less mix and then pouring water liberally on top to ensure sogginess before tamping down to eliminate air spaces.
Getting the "shower cap" on over Bruce's monster tomato starts was a challenge.
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There are plenty of reasons to grow plants in these kinds of containers. I keep coming back to the fact(s?) that they're easy to use and they work: "more than double the yield of a conventional garden--using less water, less fertilizer and virtually no effort". They're a nice solution to some of the problems posed by challenging growing conditions on rooftops, balconies, and contaminated soil. I'll admit they're not perfect--all that plastic and added fertilizer--but they let you make the most of whatever you've got.
You can make these planters out of almost any type of watertight container, that usually means plastic. Some plastics are ok, others you want to stay away from--short version, avoid #3, 6, and #7.
We used 1 cubic foot of Baccto Professional Planting Mix (available at Gethsemane Garden Center, $10 for 2 cubic feet) per planter. It's a mixture (by volume) of 85% sphagnum peat and 15% perlite, with some lime added to stabilize the pH between 5.5-6.5. You can buy other pre-bagged potting mixes as long as they don't have composted/decaying material, like soil, in them.
By introducing organic, decaying matter into the closed environment of the SIP, you allow for the growth of mold and you impede the flow of water from reservoir to plant. We'd encourage you to stick with the peat for the first year so you have something to base any further experiments on.
However........ Peat is a non-renewable resource. Coir is a terrific substitute, you can buy a compressed brick (it'll expand to 2 gallons when you add water) for $2.60 at Brew and Grow. We've found that a mix of 35% coir, 50% peat, and 15% perlite works well. We'd like to hear from anyone who has had good results growing in just coir and perlite.
Everyone put 1 cup of Espoma Garden Lime (available at Home Depot) in the top 4" of potting mix of each bucket to ward off blossom end rot. That was followed by 2 cups of Espoma 3-4-6 Tomato-tone (from Gethsemane) in a ring on top of the mix in each planter.
These amounts are based, loosely, on the official Earthbox™ Planting Guide.
We're looking forward to another great group on Sat. May 30th, from 1-3 pm. Send us an email greenroofgrowers [at] gmail [dot] com by May 25th to reserve a spot. More details here.
I haven't figured out what to say for Part 2, but in the meantime I'll show you what we're doing.
We used a couple of different techniques. The easiest is to put peat cubes filled with seed starting mix or potting mix into a waterproof container. Better yet, skip the peat cubes. Then set it under fluorescent lights, apply heat and cover with plastic until the seeds germinate. Then keep them watered.
We also used Burpee's Deluxe Seed Starting Kit. It's not a bad product, though the only advantage seems to be that it is a mini SIP in design, allowing you to go a week without watering.
Here's a schematic of the Burpee kit.
Starting 72 different seedlings at a time, it's important to keep a list of what you planted.
This year we're starting three times as many seedlings as we did before, roughly 300. That meant it was time to update our lighting rack.
Voila!
I used this design as a basic guide and made a few changes. I put two shop lights side by side on each level and omitted the hardwood dowel as a light support. You can read more about growing under lights here.
Once the seedlings have their second set of true leaves, they're ready to be transplanted into larger containers. I made 15 gallons of potting mix; 45% sphagnum peat moss, 45% coir, and 10% perlite. To this I added 3 cups of Espoma Plant-tone 5-3-3 and 3 cups of Nance Klehm's earthworm castings.
To protect the roots I use a kitchen fork to lift the tiny seedlings out of the germinating tray and drop them into a larger cup. Then I lightly pack extra mix around the seedling until it's set. Water them in and you're done.
Art and Heidi had a few leftover cafeteria food trays that are perfect for this. I can set 25 4" grower pots on each tray and then fill up the tray with water. Makes things much easier. At right are Carmona Lettuce and Bloomsdale spinach.
Here are some cold weather greens that will go outside around April 1st. This picture was taken March 22nd, it's amazing how much bigger they've gotten in the last week.
Both Russ and Heidi have picked up most of their cold weather starts. I know Heidi's already got them planted in bucket SIPs in her new greenhouse; nice thing to have this time of year.
With those seedlings out the door I now have room under the lights to transplant our tomatoes, eggplant, peppers and herbs into larger containers. I got a great price on 500 32 oz. deli containers from a local vegetable market. With drainage holes drilled in the bottom they're perfect for seedlings.
If you want us to start any seeds for you just let me know in an email (greenroofgrowers [at] geemail [dot] com) or comment. I'm not doing it for the money, trust me. I'd like to meet some of you and bridge the gap between the pixels on my screen and the real world.
Doug Wood is the longtime head of the Wicker Park Garden Club. Every year they put together a series of seminars on garden subjects, here's a few that might be of interest to our local readers:
Saturday, March 28 - 10 am-12 Noon - Workshop Reservations: $15 - wpgarden@aol.com or 773-278-9075 Wicker Park Historic Home - Location Given to Registered Students
SEED & PLANT PROPAGATION WORKSHOP Richard Tilley, Larry Clary - Wicker Park Garden Club
So you want to grow something special or plants you can’t buy at the garden center. NO PROBLEM! Richard has grown plants for his garden from seed for 15 years-1200 plants from seed this past spring. Learn about affordable light sources; soil mixtures; propagating hardy and half-hardy annuals, tender perennials, biennials; germination conditions--heat or cool, in light or in the dark, pre-chilling or soaking seeds; germination times - days to months; transplanting and hardening off.
If you don't want to start your own seedlings--or buy some of ours-- they'll have a nice selection available for sale on May 2nd and 3rd.
Saturday, Sunday May 2 & 3 - 10am-3:30 pm Wicker Park - 1425 N. Damen, Chicago, IL PLANT SALE & WORKSHOPS Fundraiser for the Gardens in Wicker Park Good Weather--Outside Field House-West Side or Bad Weather Inside
Enjoy shopping for your spring garden design s—the plant sale fundraiser features a large selection of plants that can be used for your containers, come for exciting tropicals for sun and shade, zone 5 hardy perennials for sun and/or shade gardens, and a selection of tomatoes and vegetables. Plant list composed of recommendations of our members--let us know what you would like to see at the sale. COME EARLY!
You can also find seedlings at some of the Farmers Markets, starting at the end of April. Before I grew my own, two of my favorite spots were Green City Market on Wednesdays and the Lincoln Park High School Market on Saturdays. Plenty of interesting varieties not found at the big box stores.
Stop by the Conservatory's outside Demonstration Garden to visit with our hard-working gardeners. They might be planting, weeding or if you’re lucky, they’ll be harvesting something you can taste! Many of our garden volunteers are Master Gardeners who would be happy to answer your questions and talk with you about their work. Staffed garden is dependent on weather ─ please call 773-638-1766 ext 16 for additional information.
The University of Illinois Cook County Extension office has a terrific outreach program on Urban Horticulture and the Environment. They have plenty of practical advice, and again, it's Free............
Finally, there's Nance Klehm. She does it all and likes to share what she knows. This is from the Living Kitchen section of her site:
Localizing the Palate in the Landscape
Are you looking for a different taste? Do you like to cook with others? Are you wondering what to do with your cabbage/apples/dandelions? Are you curious about foraging for wild plants?
Living kitchen is a series of informal cooking workshops that hopes to reorganize our connection to land, ourselves and our communities through the processing and sharing of local and regional foods. In these workshops we use foods that are locally cultivated, as well as foraged in order to foster exploration of our environs and with our relationship with what’s growing around us.
Living Kitchen is about direct experience with what’s living and growing around us, new tastes, simple food-making processes, and sharing with others.
QUESTIONS? Contact Nance via email: nettlesting [at] yahoo [dot] com
Every gardening site has a section on Starting Seeds. I'm tempted to point to one of them--here's a good primer--and say good night.
I don't think that's enough.
I've come to believe it's not so much that people don't have the information, but are convinced that it's too difficult. With that in mind, a pep talk:
° Seeds are cheap
° The interesting plants are usually only available as seeds
° You did it in the First Grade
So if at some point this all seems a little too complicated, keep that last sentence in mind: You were able to pull it off when you were six years old.
Naturally, the catalogs only sell the Best Prize-Winning Heirloom Vegetables available. With so many options to choose from, GrowingTaste.com's List of Desirable Vegetables was helpful in deciding which bits of advertising to believe.
It's confounding that in this day and age, in which there is a myriad of magazines discussing the qualities and tastes of comestibles from wines to commercial flours, we home-garden vegetable growers have no central source of plausibly reliable taste reports from which to compare the various varieties of each of the many vegetables we grow annually. A very few--tomatoes most notably--excite enough interest that there are extensive discussions available about varieties, but what's the best-tasting celeriac? Or, for that matter, broccoli?
We have scoured the internet, including both the web and usenet, looking for information; we have also, of course, pored over numerous seedsmen's catalogues, for what that's worth. (It is amazing how there can be sixteen varieties of a vegetable, each and every one of which is absolutely, positively the best variety there is.) Because of such bias, we have, in our evaluations of the literature, given far and away the most weight to various scientific studies, conducted mainly by universities and State agencies, because they have nothing to sell and no axes to grind.
With your seeds picked out, it's a relatively simple process to figure out when you need to start. Everything is based on your average last frost date--here in Chicago that's May 15th.
Why Start Seeds
Vegetables grown in areas with short growing seasons or ones that take too long to mature need to be started indoors in order to get a good head start before moving outside, said a University of Illinois Extension horticulture educator.
"Planting time for vegetable seeds started indoors depends on when the seedling needs to be transplanted in the garden," said Maurice Ogutu. "This time may vary from four to 14 weeks."
For example, if the indoor start is done in relation to the last frost, the times are as follow:
10 weeks--broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, and head lettuce;
Seven weeks--tomato, eggplant, and pepper; and
Four weeks--cucumber, muskmelon, squash, and watermelon.
"Starting vegetable seeds indoors ensures that high percent germination is achieved through provision of optimal conditions for seed germination," he said. "Some vegetable seeds are very expensive particularly hybrid varieties, so starting them indoors ensures that seed loss due to rodents or poor weather is minimal.
"Vegetables established from transplants tend to mature much earlier than direct-seeded ones."
Things get a little complicated when you have a garden full of plants with different starting dates. Having a calendar is helpful. By entering your average last frost date, this link generates a custom planting calendar. If you're in Chicago, Zone 5b, this calendar is a good one.
To add another twist to all this, you can plant outside sooner if you use cold frames and hoop houses. My co-blogger, H2, put a greenhouse , purchased as a kit from Costco, on her roof.
So now you've got the schedule figured out.
Next is picking up some supplies. You can buy seed starting kits--a reusable Deeluxe model like this costs $20 and starts 72 seedlings--or you can cobble something together for a little less money and get the same results.
The University of Illinois at Chicago's Ag Extension web site helps again:
"Get materials such as pots, trays, plastic flats, peat pots, and potting mix for starting the seeds ready or buy seed starter kits from local garden centers or catalogues," he said. "Containers or trays for starting seeds need to have drainage holes on the bottom.
"When starting vegetable seeds in a tray or pot, cover the holes on the trays with peat moss before filling with potting mix or soil. A good potting mix or soil for starting vegetable seeds needs to be light, loose, disease-free, insect-free, weed-seed-free, have good water-holding capacity, and well-drained."
Fill trays, flats, and pots with potting mix or starting media and level gently. Place the filled-up tray, flat, or pot on a pan of water overnight so that water can soak into the potting mix from the bottom. If trays are used, make shallow rows about one to two inches apart when starting different kinds or varieties of vegetables and label each row after seeding. Broadcast when starting one type of vegetable in a seed tray.
"Plant the seeds uniformly by pressing them gently into the starting media according to the planting depth recommended on the seed packet," he said. "Cover the container with plastic film or a piece of window glass to retain the moisture until the seeds germinate.
The only thing I'd add to that is to suggest that you use coir instead of peat moss. Sold at pet shops as bedding for hamsters and gerbils, or online at Rolanka, it's roughly the same price as peat, but there's a virtually unlimited supply of it.
I make my own potting mix - 70% (by volume) reconstituted coir, 30% perlite, mixed with a little Espoma 5-3-3 All-Purpose fertilizer. This is the same formula for what I put in all my SIPs, too.
Light and Heat.
For the past 2 years I've started roughly 100 seedlings under cheap fluorescent shop lights in my utility closet. The boiler and hot water heater keep the temperature between 70 and 75, and I use a timer to keep the lights on for 15 hours a day.
Not pretty, but I'll grow about 200 seedlings in these two areas this year.
More evidence that you don't need specialized equipment to do this.
Tiny Farm Blog has a nice Q&A forum on seed starting under lights.
This is a simple, easy-to-do project that will let you grow your own food wherever there’s enough sunlight--on your roof, balcony, back steps, driveway, or vacant lot next door. It doesn't take any special skill and the materials are all readily available. A diagram showing what's going on inside a SIP is here. The fundamentals are the same whether you use buckets, tubs, or Earthboxes.
Once you make one, it will produce beautiful food for years to come. You'll decide that one (or four, or six) isn't enough and you'll want to build lots more. This year we expanded with the ten extras at left.
Many of the photos here are from this second SIP run on the roof, and the pretty yellow pickle buckets are courtesy of Bruce's neighbor who drives for Chicago’s own Vienna Beef (Thanks, Rey! We owe you some tomatoes).
While these instructions are full of details, what you want (a healthy, productive plant) doesn't depend on following them exactly. It doesn't need to be perfect. The holes you cut can be raggedy and you'll still get pounds of tomatoes from one plant. Just try it. And if you get better results by doing it differently, we'd love to hear about it.
One 1" diameter watering tube, about 3" longer than the height of one of the buckets, made of safe(r) plastic, copper, or bamboo
One 16-oz or 24-oz safe plastic drinking cup One 13-gallon plastic trash bag One cubic foot potting mix (not soil) Organic fertilizer (1.5 to 2 cups per bucket) For tomatoes only, Hydrated lime (one cup per bucket mixed into top 6 inches of soil)
Electric or cordless drill 1/4 3/8 inch drill bit Box cutter/utility knife Snips or heavy duty scissors
If you've got hole saws it's far easier to cut the two big holes. If you don't have them, you'll just have to do a bit more work.
View this quick video for a sense of how the whole thing comes together.
While it's obviously sped up, it helps to see one done before you try it yourself. Plus, we like the drums.
So now you're ready to make one.
This is the fun part. You get to drill lots of holes in one of the buckets (set one bucket aside and don't drill it):
a big hole that will receive the soil wicking cup
a medium-size hole for the feeding tube
about 30 quarter-inch drainage holes
Because every combination of buckets and cups is slightly different, take a few simple measurements to figure out how big a hole to drill for the wicking chamber. Here's how to do that:
Set the nestled buckets in front of a light source and note how tall your water reservoir is going to be. You need to measure the height of that reservoir. Transfer that measurement to the side of your plastic drinking cup, starting from the bottom. You should now have the height of the reservoir transfered to the side of your cup. Measure the diameter of the cup at that height and add 1/8". That's how big a hole you need to cut out of the bottom of your bucket.
Turn the bucket over and mark the center. Drill a hole for the wicking cup in the center, as I'm doing here at right. If you don't have a hole saw, draw the proper diameter hole on the bucket and drill a series of quarter-inch starter holes around the perimeter of the hole you want to cut out. You should be able to get your snips or scissors in the starter holes and then cut out the larger hole for the plastic drinking cup.
Measure the diameter of your watering tube. Add 1/8" and draw a circle of that diameter about 1" in from the outside edge of the bottom of the bucket. Cut out that hole using a hole saw or with your 1/4" bit and utility knife.
It doesn't matter if the edges are ragged or if there's a gap of a 1/4" or so around either the feed tube or the plastic cup/wicking chamber. You just want to keep the potting mix from falling into, and clogging up, your water reservoir.
Now drill 30 or so 1/4" holes, evenly spaced, around the bottom of the bucket. These are the holes that allow air to get to the bottom of the roots and also for roots to grow down into the reservoir.
You'll want to cut off one end of the feeding tube at a 45 degree angle so when it's sitting in the bucket it won't get clogged up.
Using your utility knife, make 4 vertical slits (evenly spaced, with one in every quadrant) in the sides of the plastic cup. Don't cut through the bottom or the lip of the cup, just the sides. After you fill the cup with wet potting mix (creating a "wick"), these cuts will let water travel from the reservoir up into the potting mix in the upper bucket.
Put the bucket that's full of holes inside the other untouched bucket. As you did earlier, hold the bucket set up to the light and visualize the water reservoir at bottom. This time you want to drill two 1/4" overflow holes, on opposite sides of the previously untouched outside bucket. You want the height of these holes to be about a quarter inch below the bottom of the inside bucket. This means the bottom of the soil bucket will always stay relatively dry, as excess water will run out the overflow holes instead of forcing the roots to stay permanently drenched.
And now you’re ready to plant.
With one bucket sitting inside the other, drop the angled end of the feed tube into the hole you drilled for it. Pack the plastic cup with wet potting mix and set it inside the large hole in the center. It doesn't matter if it sticks up into the potting mix chamber--it's going to get covered up with potting mix anyway.
Fill the soil chamber with lightly moistened potting mix, pressing down every so often so it’s fairly compacted before adding more mix on top. You may want to mix a half cup of organic fertilizer into the potting mix. If you’re growing tomatoes, mix a cup of hydrated lime into the top 6 inches of potting mix. Be sure you have completely filled the bucket with potting mix and pressed it down around the edges at the top. There should be no depression in the soil--rather, it should mound up just a bit at the top.
Sometimes it’s easier to plant larger seedlings by filling the bucket three quarters full of potting mix, planting the seedling, and topping off the bucket with potting mix. Then add the fertilizer ring (see below) and place the plastic over the bucket, gently weaving the plant top and the watering tube through two slits you made in the plastic.
Put one cup of fertilizer around the outside edge of the bucket, leaving as large a space of plain soil in the middle as possible. Put the plastic bag (or clear plastic, as shown here) over the top to keep the fertilizer dry, moisture from evaporating, and UV rays from eating the bucket. Secure with a ziptie or string, cut your hole or holes and you’re reading to plant a small seedling or seeds.
The bucket on the right is ready to be planted with Fin de Bagnol beans, from Seed Savers.
After you plant the seeds (or seedlings), you'll want to water it in from the top. This is the first and only time you'll top water. Pour some water on it to help get it started and ease the shock of transplant). From then on you'll water your bucket by using the fill tube.
You'll be able to see the water level in the reservoir if you look closely. When it gets low, fill it up until water comes out of the overflow holes. Don't worry, you can't overwater it. You can underwater it though, so every few days take a look at the reservoir. When your plants grow larger, you may have to water every day.
Here are a couple more links with tips on planting and growing to get you off to a good start.
If you've got a bunch to do, grab a friend. It's just a bucket!
