Making prickly pear/apple butter

Posted on October 27, 2009 by Lou Murray, Ph.D.

I just returned to Huntington Beach from a fabulous trip to Monterey with my camera club, the Photographic Society of Orange County. We had a great time on our five-day trip, taking photos and seeing the sights.

ag venture toursI arranged for an agriculture tour for those who wanted to go with Evan Oakes of Agventuretours.com. We thoroughly enjoyed our half-day tour of the Salinas Valley, where most of America’s salad greens are grown. I’m going to get a newspaper column and more than one blog post out of this wonderful experience. Here is info in case you are up that way and want to take a tour.

Ag Venture Tours & Consulting

831-761-8463 Phone

evan@agventuretours.comripe prickly pear

One of the many things that Evan showed us was a field of prickly pear cactus that had apples and prickly pears more fruits on them than I’ve ever seen on prickly pear cactus. Evan pointed out that the ripe fruits are rolled to knock off all of the spines before they go to the grocery stores. At a farmer’s market, I touched one and it was as smooth as a baby’s bottom. OK, maybe as smooth as one with a diaper rash, but it was not at all prickly. So I bought four, intending to make prickly pear jelly when I got home.

fruit in potI knew I needed pectin, which is found in large quantities in apples, so I picked a half dozen organic Granny Smith apples from my tree in the backyard. I quartered the prickly pears and cut the apples into eighths, cooking them with just enough water to cover until they were really tender.

 stewed fruit in colanderI put the cooked fruit through my colander, which I inherited from my Mom. It must be 70 years old. My original plan was to make jelly, but that would have meant composting all that nice fruit pulp. I decided to make prickly pear/apple butter instead.

 

 

 

 

 

apple butter finshed

Finished apple butter in sterile jars

I cooked the pulp with organic brown sugar and spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice, and mace) until it sheeted off a spoon, then packed it into sterile jelly jars.

 

The spices overwhelmed the mild flavor of the prickly pears, but it was fabulous on some toast. I may try more prickly pears, fewer apples, and no spice next time to make jelly. I don’t know though. This fruit butter is pretty darn good.

6 apples

4 prickly pears

water to cover

1.5 cups of organic brown sugar

3 tsp ground cinnamon

1.5 tsp ground cloves

0.5 tsp ground allspice

0.5 tsp ground nutmeg

0.5 tsp ground mace

(To read more of Lou Murray’s environmental writing, see her weekly column, Natural Perspectives, in the Huntington Beach Independent at www.hbindependent.com, under columnists.)

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Saving Heirloom Seeds

Posted on October 20, 2009 by Lou Murray, Ph.D.

blue lake pole beansWhen I was at the Garden Writer’s Association conference in Raleigh last month, I visited the exhibit booth of Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds and was quite impressed with their offerings.

cilantro seedsI took a peek at their website yesterday at www.rareseeds.com and was further impressed. Baker’s Creek Heirloom Seeds carries over 1,200 open pollinated, heirloom vegetables, flowers and herbs, many of them rare varieties from southeast Asia and Central America that I haven’t found offered elsewhere.

onion seedsI requested a copy of their 2010 catalog, but I plan to order some seeds of Asian greens now for fall planting. That’s one of the joys of gardening–being able to grow vegetables that you can’t find in the grocery store. 

Unlike hybrids, old-time heirloom vegetables breed true. You can save seeds from year to year and save money on your vegetable garden. I just planted some seeds of arugula (the British call it rocket) and mizuna (a Japanese mustard green) from seeds that I saved last year. Both are good in salads, and mizuna is great in stir-fries. I plan to try some Komatsuna (another mustard from Japan) as soon as the seeds arrive.

mizuna seedsBaker’s Creek Heirloom Seeds was started by Jeremiath (Jere) Gettle in 1998 when he was only 17. He had started gardening at age 4 and was making play seed catalogs by the time he was 7. Gettle has a passion for seed-saving and preserving old varieties that might otherwise be lost to the world. He has traveled extensively in southeast Asian and Central America, collecting seeds of unusual varieties of vegetables.

In the latter part of the 2oth Century, giant corporations were offering fewer and fewer varieties of seeds. Large seed companies focused mainly on hybrid seeds, which won’t breed true if the home gardener attempts to save seeds from them. I have nothing against hybrid seeds, because they certainly have their place in agriculture. But I would hate to see the old varieties lost.

Fortunately, American home gardeners have renewed their interest in heirloom varieties, and most seed companies offer at least a few varieties. Johnny’s Seeds is another good source for heirlooms.

arugula seeds

One way in which home gardeners can help save an amazingly diverse pool of genes is to buy heirloom seeds. This supports the companies that are attempting to maintain these old varieties in cultivation. As our climate is changing rapidly now, we would be wise to preserve as many of these old varieties as possible. Some of them may contain important genes that will enable them to survive variable climate and the new diseases that are bound to spring up. Besides, their flavor is often far superior to varieties that were bred primarily to withstand transport and look pretty and uniform.  Handsome is as handsome does.

(To read more of Lou Murray’s environmental writing, see her weekly column, Natural Perspectives, in the Huntington Beach Independent at www.hbindependent.com, under columnists.)

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The Garden of Perpetual Responsibility

Posted on October 18, 2009 by Lou Murray, Ph.D.

Time to get off my soapbox and back to the garden. We have a small (6 ft x 15 ft) garden area at the side of the driveway that is enclosed by a brick and slump stone wall. The driveway slopes down toward the house, making the area essentially a raised bed.

Garden of Perpetual ResponsibilityVic (my loving spouse) thought it would be a perfect place for a vegetable garden because it was sunny, so I began “farming” it a few years ago. That was right about the time our neighbors to the south planted a solid wall of trees and shrubs in their similar-sized planter.

Understand that we’re crammed into our respective properties like sardines in a can here in southern California. Their trees prevent sun from getting to my garden about six months out of the year. Since I attempt to garden year round, that was an unfortunate turn of events.

And sun isn’t the only issue. Some idiot dumped a truckload of gravel into the planter at some past time, possibly thinking that it would help with drainage. So the dirt (you could hardly call it soil) is positively packed with large gravel. Every year, more of the rocks surface. Getting a shovel through that morass is a challenge.

I’m not done complaining about this God-forsaken patch of dirt. Because growing vegetables there has proved so frustrating, I tend to neglect this patch even more than the rest of my garden. I let weeds grow. I let them set seed. I stupidly let the seeds fall to the earth. And there they reliably grow into more weeds. At least something grows there. And yet I persevere.

Our fall rainy season has started, so I spent the past week pulling weeds out of the Garden of Perpetual Responsibility. Then I raked the ground until I had the surface fairly clear of gravel. As I always do before planting, I dug in manure and compost, plus some E.B. Stone SureStart, an organic fertilizer that has beneficial soil bacteria and mycorrhizae.

rhubarbI can’t grow root crops here because of the gravel. And I’m tired of spading through that gravel each season. So I have decided to try perennials. I put in some thornless black raspberries last spring. I set them into nursery pots buried in the ground, just so the raspberry vines wouldn’t take over the entire plot. (Ha, like something other than weeds would grow in that garden!) On the spur of the moment, I bought a Victoria rhubarb plant and put that into the ground. They like colder winters than we have here, but I should get at least a couple of years of spring rhubarb stalks out of it.

new artichokeI had good luck with an artichoke plant there in the past, so I decided to plant more artichokes this year. I bought three pots, and was surprised to find that they each had two artichoke plants in them. Then I got another surprise. My original artichoke, which I thought was dead, had sprouted after our recent rain.

I only wanted three artichoke plants, but now I have seven. I put them into the ground and left them to their fate. Given my usual gardening luck, I’ll be doing good to get a mere meal or two of artichokes next spring.newly planted GPR

(To read more of Lou Murray’s environmental writing, see her weekly column, Natural Perspectives, in the Huntington Beach Independent at www.hbindependent.com, under columnists.)

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Not too late to do more

Posted on October 16, 2009 by Lou Murray, Ph.D.
Blog Action Day

Blog Action Day

Yesterday was Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change, sponsored by www.BlogActionDay.org. An amazing 13,254 blogs about climate change were posted from 155 countries, and more than 17 million readers participated.

Some people believe that climate change is occuring, and some don’t. Some people believe that global warming is caused by increases in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, and some don’t. Some people believe that this current episode of global warming is caused by the actions of humans, and some don’t.

But this is a scientific issue, not a belief issue. The facts are real and impossible for a thinking person to ignore. Opinions don’t count for squat in the face of irrefutable facts. For example, far more glaciers are melting than are growing. The Arctic has warmed up ten degrees in the last century. Ocean levels in California rose eight inches over the past century, with the rate of rise increasing. Storms are becoming more frequent and more severe. Droughts are causing crop failures. People are dying by the tens of thousands in heat waves.

And yet some people ignore this prepondance of evidence. They prefer to believe the doubt spewed out by right-wing think tanks that are funded by oil, energy, and auto industries, companies that have a vested interest in blocking legislation that might curb greenhouse gas emissions. Just because last year was cooler than 2007 (which was the second hottest year on record), they say the planet is cooling.

It’s time to wake up and smell the forests burning. Climate change is real. It’s happening now and it is just going to get worse in the future. Do something! Then do more.

Any action that you take to conserve energy and reduce emissions by autos or energy companies helps. Conserving electricity, heating oil, and natural gas in the home, reducing trips by car, and buying locally produced items to avoid long-distance shipping helps. Planting trees helps. Eating at least some, if not all, vegetarian meals helps. Donating to organizations that fight global warming helps. Growing your own food at home helps. Recycling aluminum helps. Consuming less helps. Even conserving water helps, because it takes energy to transport and purify that water.

Examine your life and see what else you can do to make a difference. And spread the word. There are still a lot of non-believers out there. If people don’t believe the scientific evidence and take action soon, there is little hope for meaningful change.

What are you doing in your life to make that difference? Leave a comment.

(To read more of Lou Murray’s environmental writing, see her weekly column, Natural Perspectives, in the Huntington Beach Independent at www.hbindependent.com, under columnists.)

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Fighting rising food costs

Posted on October 15, 2009 by Lou Murray, Ph.D.

According to AOL’s Daily Finance report of Oct. 15 2009, the cost of groceries has risen 45% over the past two years. They’re set to rise another 5% over the next year.

I do what I can to help put food on the table by growing as much of our own food as possible. Having a mini-orchard and veggie garden in our small 6,000 sq ft urban yard is at least a hedge against inflation. And it’s a psychological comfort, which counts for something in these nervous times.

nectarinesOur 1750 sq ft house, three-car garage, driveway, deck, patio, and sidewalks occupy most of that 6,000 sq ft. That leaves little room left for food production. But into the remaining space we’ve managed to fit three vegetable growing areas and 21 fruit trees. I chose varieties that would produce fruit at different times of the year, so there is usually something to eat year round from our fruit trees. peaches

We have:

  •  apples (Fuji, Gala and Granny Smith),
  • apricots (Katy),
  • Asian pears (Shinseiki and 20th Century),
  • avocados (Littlecado),
  • lemons (Eureka and Meyers),
  • limes (Bearrs),
  • nectarines (Panamint and Snow Queen),
  • peaches (August Pride, Babcock, Florida Prince, and Garden Gold),
  • plums (Santa Rosa) and
  • oranges (Navel and Valencia).

These are all varieties that will bear fruit in coastal southern California. But the trees are young with their prime bearing years yet ahead of them. If the “Big One” hit on the San Andreas fault now, we couldn’t survive for long on what is growing in our yard. We’d be gnawing on bark in a matter of days.

We also have blueberries (Sunshine Blue), thornless blackberries, and grapes (seedless Red Flame). Like our fruit trees, these are still too young to give much fruit. And given how much the berry vines and fruit trees cost in the first place, we’re not even close to breaking even on our investment. We’re doing this more to have really good, locally grown, organic food as much as to save money.

sidewalk gardenThe vegetable garden is another story. I grew most of my plants from seed this year, which is very cost effective. The value of the amount of food that I get from a typical packet is about five times more than what the seeds cost. I focus on heirloom seeds. Unlike hybrid seeds, these breed true and can be saved from year to year. That’s when the real savings kicks in.

But produce is only a small portion of our grocery bill. We buy toilet paper and paper towels (with recycled paper content of course), meat (we’re only semi-vegetarian), dairy, eggs, flour, sugar, olive oil, cereals, grains, snack food, wine, cleaning products,  and a host of other products. Even with our home garden, our grocery bill for the two of us runs about $450 a month. That’s not counting what I spend on tools, stakes, cages, seeds, plants, compost, fertilizer, and organic pest control for the garden. Those costs must be factored into the cost of my home-grown food, unless I just chalk it up to hobby costs (which I do). The value of what I harvest probably averages about $20-30 a week.

peppers and an onionBut the peace of mind that comes from knowing that our food is organic and not contributing to the carbon-load of being trucked or shipped from South America? Priceless. And the freshness, taste and unusual varieties? Well, those are reason enough to keep on gardening. Besides, it’s FUN! I’m headed outdoors to plant artichokes and rhubarb.

(To read more of Lou Murray’s environmental writing, see her weekly column, Natural Perspectives, in the Huntington Beach Independent at www.hbindependent.com, under columnists.)

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Water World

Posted on October 14, 2009 by Lou Murray, Ph.D.

We had our first rainfall of the season last night! Here in coastal southern California, we get an average of only 15 inches of rain a year. That’s pretty close to desert conditions, so every drop is precious, especially when I’m trying to grow our own fruits and vegetables under urban conditions.

WHERE IT COMES FROM

Because we live in a near desert, the bulk of our water here in Orange County, CA comes from snow that fell in the Sierra Nevadas and Colorado Rockies. It takes energy to bring that water here, and to purify it. Thus saving water saves energy. And we all know that saving energy helps reduce carbon dioxide emissions, which in turn helps combat global warming. And that’s what I’m all about.

CAPTURING RAINFALL

To capture some of that precious rainfall, I set three separate containers under our eaves. First time I’ve tried that.  Normally, I’d just turn on the tap when I want water, but I’m rethinking that strategy. Rainfall is better than tap water for watering gardens.

Two containers didn’t catch much, but my new 7-gallon Tubtrug from Gardener’s Supply Company must have been in just the right spot. I managed to save about five gallons of rainfall in that bucket. I’ll use the water to irrigate my container plantings next week.

RAIN BARRELS

But that certainly isn’t the end of my water-saving strategy. Here in southern California, houses usually don’t come with gutters, and my husband and I have done without them for the whole 20 years that we’ve lived in this house. But this summer, we decided to add rain barrels to our greenscape. We had a local contractor install gutters and downspouts on the north side of our house, and bought a rain barrel from Gardener’s Supply Company (no, I don’t work for them, I just like their products).

But this early rainfall caught us by surprise. We don’t have the downspout cut short and connected to the rain barrel yet. I’ll get that done later. But I can see that one barrel isn’t going to be enough. If one bucket caught 5 gallons just running off the eaves on the south side of the house, a downspout directing water from the whole north side is going to result in, um, (calculate, calculate), a gazillion gallons. I’m gonna need a bigger barrel.

The solution, of course, is to connect a number of rain barrels in series. Our gutter guy estimated that we’d need three rain barrels to hold the amount of water that runs off the north side of our roof during an average rainfall. I just am not ramped up to that stage yet.

HOMEMADE RAIN BARRELS

When I was in North Carolina a few weeks ago at a garden writer’s conference, I saw some nifty rain barrels made by some teens in Durham at DIG (Durham Inner city Garden). They had constructed a shade structure, under which they had their potting bench. The roof of the structure was a green roof that grew plants. Any runoff was collected in their homemade rain barrels. Rain BarrelsNeighboring SEEDS had a similar structure, pictured here.

I’m going to attempt to construct similar barrels to connect to my one purchased barrel, which was horribly expensive. Since I have construction skills similar to those possessed by a typical kindergartener, stay tuned for more adventures.

 

(To read more of Lou Murray’s environmental writing, see her weekly column, Natural Perspectives, in the Huntington Beach Independent at www.hbindependent.com, under columnists.)

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