Riding the February Weather Rollercoaster

Groundhog Day has come and gone, and I'm further reminded of how much sense a seemingly silly holiday would make to someone who has to live off the land. Because if you do the question, "is it spring yet?" is very important. Last Thursday, it looked like this outside:

Tonight it's supposed to freeze again, while tomorrow it's supposed to be in the high 70's.

This is February in Texas, and this year seems to have been particularly bad. Last year we only had one hard freeze where it got down into the 20's. Other than that, maybe only a few times where it dipped slightly below 32.

This year we've had several hard freezes, maybe about five or six, but with warm days in the 60's or 70's sandwiched between. It's hard to get used to such extreme swings in temperature. I'm getting tired of covering plants with frost blankets for a day or two, and then needing to uncover them so they won't bake underneath them when it turns 75 and sunny.

As you can see in the fourth picture above, I forgot to re-cover the potatoes I planted in fall during the last freeze. It killed all their top growth, so I guess I'll just have to see if they can recover. At least I have a second planting of potatoes I did in January that haven't poked up out of the soil yet. Those should be fine.

I'm disappointed by that, but otherwise I must admit it's exciting in a way. We don't get white stuff on the ground that often around these parts.

It's Finally Fall

Recent events have put made updating my blog a low priority. The Autumn Equinox and the full moon of September have come and gone, and now it's finally fall. It feels like fall outside too, but by Texas standards, which means it's only in the low 90's. We've had some of our first cold fronts come through, and last weekend we got a whopping 5 inches of rain.

I think fall is my favorite season, because that's when we can breathe a sigh of relief that summer is over, and start indulging in things like pumpkin pie flavored everything.

 

The rows of tomatoes in the front garden look like this now. On my to-do list is to pull out what's left of the tomato plants and till it up. I've decided to build raised beds out of cedar (with my husband's help!), and I think I'll start here.

 

The butternut squash that survived being eaten repeatedly by deer are still trying hard to make some fruits before it freezes. I hope they have time.

The peppers are doing great, and have started making more fruit. These are all peppers that survived last winter. I wonder how many years I can keep them going.

 

The eggplants are doing great too. I really need to cook some of them. A lot of them are getting overripe before I get the chance.

 

In the back, the Tatume squash that survived the summer is also making a comeback with lots of flowers. Most of them seem to be male flowers, but I might be able to get some summer squash to eat from them before it freezes.

I've gotten a couple of okra pods from my three healthy plants, but not enough to make much of a dish out of. The watermelon probably won't manage to make a fruit before winter.









The sweet potatoes still look good, at least aboveground. No telling what's going on below until it's time to harvest them.

Meanwhile, I'm just starting to plant fall crops. Here are my fava beans starting to come up in the back garden. I planted two varieties from Baker Creek to compare: Broad Windsor and Aquadulce.

Here's the nice trellis my husband put up for the Tall Telephone peas. That should work much better than the netting I used last time. TT is a big variety that needs a sturdy trellis.

The brassicas, chard, fennel, etc. are still in pots. I brought them in the garage because something was digging them up. No idea what it was, but some critter was obviously digging them up out of the pots. I would find the poor plant lying beside the pot and kept having to put them back. I hope now they can recover soon so I can plant them in the ground.

I also finally got the garlic I ordered from Southern Exposure Seed Exchange. I got three varieties this time: Red Toch, Lorz Italian, and S&H Silverskin. The first two are ones I've already grown before that did pretty well, though I still haven't gotten a harvest anything like 2010. Then there was bad weather the next year, then the move, then I made the mistake of planting the garlic in the shade. Well, this time I'm not moving, and I'm going to plant them in an ideal spot with plenty of compost and mulch, so it's just up to Mother Nature to do her part

First Frost

Last night we finally had our first frost, though it looks like it was fairly mild. The tomato plants aren't looking so good, but the pepper plants look fine.

Here are the mushy tomato plants in the foreground, with beets and carrots in the background. It doesn't look like they froze all the way down to the roots, but I went ahead and picked all the green tomatoes off them anyway. It's supposed to get below freezing again tonight, so that might finish them off.

I ended up with about 5 pounds of green tomatoes, along with lots of lots more peppers, especially Lemon Drop peppers, but also some more bell peppers, negro peppers, and Cayenne peppers. Even though the peppers seem to have made it through the freeze I thought it best to relieve them of their burden of ripe fruits anyway.

So what to do with this final bounty of 2012? The bigger tomatoes would be good made into Fried Green Tomatoes, but I also have lots and lots of little ones that wouldn't be worth the trouble. I think I'll make those into Green Tomato Relish from the Ball Book of Home Preserving. Maybe growing fall tomatoes is worth it after all.

My first batch of Lemon Drop Hot Pepper Sauce didn't turn out very good. Way too vinegary. All I could taste is vinegar and capsaicin, and none of the nice citrus fruitiness of the peppers. I think a good Lemon Drop Hot Pepper Sauce should be fruity and hot, with just enough acid to preserve it, but not to overwhelm the flavor (if that's possible). I've seen sauce recipes around that used pureed fruit such as peaches, apricot, pineapple, etc., usually with habanero peppers, which are also reputed to have a fruity flavor (I've never been brave enough to try!), so maybe something similar with lemon drops would work out.

I guess the good news is lemon drops are so prolific I've got plenty more peppers to experiment with! Though next time I'll start with a smaller batch just in case.

Winter Coming Late

For the last month or so, it seems like the deciduous trees just don't know what to do. We had a little cold weather, but then it's been in the 70's and even 80's for a while and very dry. Most of the trees usually turn in October, but some still seem confused and are turning color late, or some of their leaves are falling while some are still green.

Here are the Western Soapberry trees growing along the side of the old garden shed. Usually these turn a lovely golden color, but as you can see here, some of their leaves are still green, while others are already falling off.

The Flameleaf Sumac was also late in changing color to brilliant red. Usually it does that in October and would be leafless by now, but mine still has about half it's leaves left.

Other trees in the area, like the Cedar Elms, Red Oaks, and Pecans also seem confused, with some green leaves still hanging on even though it's December already!

Meanwhile, the Yaupon Hollies have plenty of berries and have for a while. It's kind of weird seeing them, a tree associated with winter and Christmas because of their winter berries, all loaded up with berries while it's 85 degrees outside.

The good news is we're supposed to get a good cold front tonight! It's supposed to get down to freezing every night for the next few days. I'm looking forward to it. Sure, it means I need to go out there today and pick all the rest of the peppers and tomatoes, and they probably won't survive, but it's just felt so wrong to be listening to Christmas carols and putting up lights when it's this warm. It's about time for it to be winter already.

Vegetable Growing Seasons in Texas

When I was a kid growing up in the Dallas area, I was taught that you planted the vegetable garden in the spring, sometime around Easter, and harvest was in the summer and fall. We planted the whole thing at once, over a weekend or two, and some things did fine with that, but some things didn’t. The cherry tomatoes, peppers, beans, and squash did fine, but the lettuce didn’t last long until it bolted and turned bitter, and the onion sets we planted never grew into big bulbs.

Since then I’ve learned a lot more about growing vegetables in Texas, or at least in Central Texas where I live now. The idea of planting in the spring and harvesting in the fall may work for most of the country, and that’s why you find it in most generic gardening books, but this far South things are a bit different. Remember, all gardening is local. Fortunately, there’s more and more regional gardening information coming out all the time.

Texas actually has two distinct growing seasons with two distinct groups of crops. You have the summer crops, which are planted in spring and harvested in summer or fall, and then you have the winter crops, which are planted in fall and harvested in spring. The good news is that means you can have something growing in your garden all year. The bad news is you have a do a bit more research to find out when you can plant what. Of course, you could just do what some people do, and not bother with the winter crops, but my goal is to get as much food out of my garden as possible, so leaving the garden empty during the winter when I could be growing all kinds of things just seems like a waste. So here is a list of what crops are the warm-weather crops, and which the cool-weather crops are. The main difference between the two is whether or not they can survive a frost. Most summer crops can’t survive a frost, while most winter crops can, but bolt or turn bitter or otherwise do poorly in hot weather.

Summer Crops:

Nightshades – tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, tomatillos

Cucurbits – squash, melons, cucumbers, gourds

Warm weather legumes – common beans, lima beans, and cowpeas (which includes black-eyed peas and yardlong beans)

Warm weather greens – Malabar spinach, amaranth

Corn

Sweet potatoes

Okra

Basil

Winter Crops:

Root crops – carrots, beets, turnips, parsnips, radishes, rutabagas

Brassicas – cabbage, cauliflower, broccoli, kale, collards

Salad greens – lettuce, arugula, spinach, chicory, endive, Swiss chard

Cold weather legumes – peas and fava beans

Cold weather annual herbs – parsley, dill, cilantro, fennel

Alliums – onions, garlic, leeks

Potatoes

There are some general rules of thumb. Most plants where you eat the fruit, like tomatoes, peppers, squash, melons, etc. are warm weather crops. Most plants where you eat the leaves or roots are cool weather crops, but there are some exceptions.

Since frost hurts or even kills warm weather crops, you have to plant them after your average frost date (which here is in early March), though you can plant nightshade transplants earlier if you give them protection. I sometimes plant them in February, since by then whatever frosts we might have are minor and I can run out there and throw a cover over them if it happens. Depending on the severity of the summer, some of these crops can last the whole summer, while others might die by August, though sometimes you can plant a second crop in time for fall.

Cool weather crops need to be grown during the winter, because in hot weather they bolt and turn bitter, or just shrivel up and die. Most of them can survive the whole winter until it starts getting warm again around May or so, but in unusually cold winters some might die and can be replanted in late winter or early spring for a quick crop before it gets too hot for them.

The tricky part, which I haven’t quite mastered yet, is coordinating the planting and harvesting times for cool and warm weather crops. I’d like to get the maximum amount of food out of my garden plot as possible, so that means that ideally as soon as one crop is done, I can immediately plant another crop of something else in the same spot. The problem is there is significant overlap between one bunch of crops being done and a new bunch being planted.

Right now is one of those in-between times. We’ve gotten a couple of cold fronts, so it’s finally cool enough to start planting the fall/winter crops. The problem is, many of the summer crops managed to survive the summer (not all, but some), and are still taking up room in the garden. It does depend on the severity of the summer, but this year all my peppers survived the summer, along with a few of the tomatoes, the basil, and the luffa gourds. I went ahead and ripped out the pole beans, melons, and squash, which were all either dead or mostly dead. That has left some room to start sticking in fall crops here and there.

My strategy so far is to just squeeze stuff in where I can. Here you can see my newly transplanted mustard greens next to some peppers and one of the few surviving tomatoes. It seems to mostly work, but makes the garden very patchy and haphazard looking. But maybe that’s ok.

Some forethought is necessary, though, especially for some crops. For example, potatoes are planted in January or February, which is a while after the first fall crops are planted, so I have to make sure to set aside a patch for them while I'm planting things in September and October. Then they’re harvested in May or June, which is a bit too late to plant a lot of summer crops like peppers and tomatoes. But then what do I do with the empty spot where the potatoes were harvested? I have to find a crop that can stand being planted that late in the year, when it’s already getting hot outside. Garlic presents a similar problem. It’s planted at the same time as most fall crops, but isn’t harvested until May or June, again leaving an empty spot in the garden when it’s too late to plant a lot of things. The last time I planted potatoes, I followed them up with sweet potatoes, and that seemed to work well. I wonder if okra, watermelon, or cowpeas would work too. You need something that can really stand the heat. Tomatoes or cucumbers don't work. May is just too late for them.

If you grow your own transplants, that complicates things even more, because you have to have the forethought of starting them a month or two in advance of when they go out in the garden. That means fall brassicas are started in early August when it’s blazing hot outside, and I start my tomatoes and peppers right in the middle of winter. It seems wrong, I know, but I kept having to push the date back and back and back, until I found myself planting tomatoes on New Year's.

It takes some research and trial-and-error, but I try to make it so there’s always something growing in the garden.

Spring and New Beginnings

The Spring Equinox was earlier this week, and it's a New Moon today.

Not coincedentally at all, I'm getting married on Saturday! Yes, Daniel and I are finally making it official and tying the knot.

Nature seems to be smiling on us as well, even though the mountain laurels were early this year, so the flowers are already gone and we won't be able to use any for wedding decorations like we had hoped for. But we did have a big thunderstorm come through on the actual equinox, and then things cleared right up, and Saturday is going to be warm, sunny and beautiful, while all that rain has insured that we'll have plenty of flowers and greenery surrounding us at our outdoor wedding.

There's even a second rose growing on the rosebush in our new yard, just in time!

Texas Mountain Laurel

My new yard is just full of these plants, also known as Mescal Beans, Sophora secundiflora. I tend the call the bright red seeds "mescal beans" and the whole plant "mountain laurels", even though that can be confusing, because there's a completely unrelated tree, Kalmia latifolia, which is also called a "mountain laurel". It just seems like a prettier name to me than "mescal bean", and this is a very pretty small tree/large shrub. It's also called a "Texas mountain laurel" to distinguish it from the other mountain laurel that doesn't grow in Texas, though the two trees are in separate plant families.

The Texas Mountain Laurel is a legume, like mesquites, beans, and peas. You can tell by the peanut-like pods it gets, and like many legumes, it has compound leaves, which in this species are shiny and evergreen. But the most striking thing about mountain laurels are the blooms, and mine have just started popping!

It gets these large inflorescences of light purple flowers that smell, remarkably, like Grape Kool-Aid, or Welch's Grape Soda. I get thirsty for that childhood favorite just smelling them. Maybe the grape association is only due to the color of the blooms fooling you into thinking of grape, but they are very SWEET and fruity smelling, without much of a hint of any floral notes. When the wind is right, you can smell a whiff of sweetness in the air from trees pretty far away.

The bees sure like them too. I wonder if honey made from mountain laurel flowers also tastes like grape soda. I am reminded of something from The Botany of Desire about how flowers actually look and smell beautiful to attract bees, and humans just so happen to have similar tastes as bees. It's a nice coincidence.

Speaking of flowers, my new yard also has two neglected rose bushes. I pruned them way back, in the hopes of encouraging them to grow bushier (and they also had a lot of dead canes), but I left this one branch because it had a flower on it. The rose has a much more "dignified" fragrance than the mountain laurel. It's a smell that says "classy grandmother" to me, rather than "kid guzzling Kool-Aid".

Though the same plant with the sweet smelling flowers also has a less innocent side. My new yard is also littered with red "mescal beans" that come from the peanut-like pods of the Texas Mountain Laurel. These in the picture are a bit faded. Straight from the pods they're a bright, shiny red. Indigenous people used to use them as a hallucinogenic drug in religious rituals. Here's an interesting article about that. Mescal beans were eventually replaced by peyote, a plant that is reputed to give a more spectacular high with fewer side effects than the mescal bean. However, today the bright red seeds are still made into beads, and strings of them are worn in peyote rituals.

After reading so many warnings about how toxic mescal beans are, I'm not going to try eating any, but the thought of drilling holes in some to make beads is appealing to me. I've seen some pictures of pretty bean necklaces online. I especially like the ones that have a mixture of more than one seed, like mescal beans mixed with shiny black Mexican buckeyes.

I'm mainly just glad to have so many of one of my favorite native plants in my new yard, one that is so beautiful and has such an interesting history. My ancestors used signs from nature like certain plants blooming to mark the seasons, so it seems to me like Sophora secundiflora would be an especially good plant to mark the begging of spring here in the Hill Country.

New Year 2012

I'm looking back at my New Year's post for 2011 to see what ended up actually happening compared to what I planned to do. Of course the biggest garden story of 2011 was the drought. Not only that, but one of the worst droughts in Texas history! So a lot of my garden resolutions didn't come to fruition just because of that.

I didn't harvest my garlic earlier, keep on top of the squash vine borers better, or get some fall tomatoes all because all that stuff was ruined by drought anyway. Pretty much the only summer crops I harvested at all were a few tomatoes and peppers.

Another one of my resolutions was to be more careful about watering, but I ended up using more water in 2011 than I did in 2010 because I didn't have the heart to just let my whole garden wither and die, which it would have if I hadn't watered once a week. The really bad thing is that most things died anyway, because once a week watering wasn't enough in the extreme heat and drought, and the things that didn't die didn't yield a good enough harvest to be worth it.

I did manage to save some seed from my Rio Grande paste tomatoes and Ms. Burns Lemon basil, but there was nothing else to save seed from.

Another accomplishment was getting a soil test done, which revealed that my garden is good on all nutrients except nitrogen, which is much better than I expected. However, this may become irrelevant in 2012, for a reason I will get to shortly. For the same reason, I may not have to worry about Bermuda grass or finishing my rock borders in 2012.

One thing that did happen on 2011 that affected my garden in a more indirect way is that I finally got a job. I was unemployed for most of 2010, but in 2011 I got a job as an adjunct biology professor. This may explain why I posted to this blog 61 times in 2010, but only 47 times in 2011. I had a little less time on my hands, though my job is still a part time one. Maybe in 2012 I'll get a second part time job, or get a full time job at last, but then I'll have to learn to keep up with my garden with even less time on my hands. My garden has been very important to my mental health during this time, giving me something to do that feels productive and worthwhile.

2012 Garden Outlook

1. Moving! The big story for 2012 is that I'm probably going to be moving! My fiance (we're getting married in March) has decided that, at least with his salary, we can afford to buy a house. Our mortgage payments would end up being less than what we're paying for rent now, and he can get a VA loan since he's a veteran. So if all goes well, I'll be breaking completely new ground in 2012. That means I'll have to start over with some things, which will take up most of my garden work. I'll have to get a new soil test, and start digging up grass and building up planting beds all over again. It'll give me a lot to blog about though.

2. Will the Drought Continue? I've heard different things about whether we'll have another summer in 2012 like the one in 2011. I hope not, but if so, I'll have to go ahead and let things die if it comes to that. It's a complete waste of water to keep plants alive that aren't going to bear fruit anyway because it's too hot, and by the time it cooled down, what did survive didn't have time to do anything before it froze.

3. Because of these previous two things, I'm going to have to be more conservative about what I plant in 2012. Depending on when exactly we're going to move (which might be as soon as February or March), I probably shouldn't plant anything new in my current garden at all, and just let what I have finish out. Then I won't have much time to get my new garden ready before the summer heat sets in. I'm trying to think of what crops I should concentrate on in my new garden that first year. I already have tomatoes and peppers started, so I'll have to plant those. Besides that, maybe legumes to start building up the soil? It might depend on my soil test.

Of course I've got big dreams for the new place that I haven't been able to do while renting a house, including planting perennials like asparagus and berry bushes and fruit trees, and rigging up some sort of greywater system. I need to not get too excited and get ahead of myself here. We haven't even made an offer on a house yet!

Holiday Goodies

Gift-giving has been an important part of the winter holiday season since the holiday being celebrated was Saturnalia. It's one of my favorite rituals, but one thing that annoys me is the assumption that it has to cost a lot of money. During these tough economic times, I hear people say things like "maybe we shouldn't do gifts this year" and "I don't want to end up in debt for months."

I think this is kind of missing the point. For me, the joy and fun of giving and receiving gifts doesn't correlate well with the price tag those gifts had on them at all. I mean, sure it's nice to get something expensive, especially if it's something you could really use that you would have trouble affording, and it's given to you by someone who can afford it, but I don't think the choice here is between expensive gifts that leave everyone with "five months of bills" as the song goes, or forgoing the tradition completely.

One good option is homemade gifts. This is an especially good option for those of us who are unemployed or underemployed and are therefore short on money, but probably have extra time. You can knit a scarf, bake a batch of cookies, or can a batch of salsa. Often these things are much better than anything you can buy in a store anyway.

Just about every year I make a batch of pecan pralines. I've had this recipe for years and don't remember where I got it, so I hope it's ok to reprint it here for you. It's really very simple, and a great first step into homemade candy making.

Pecan Pralines

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups pecans
• 1 1/2 cups white sugar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 6 tablespoons butter (that's 3/4 of a stick)
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract

You'll also need a large saucepan, a candy thermometer (you can do the dropping-it-into-cold-water thing, which I did on my first few batches, but that's a pain and really, the candy thermometer is totally worth it), a baking pan or cookie sheet that has sides, some cooking spray, and some wax paper or parchment paper.

Put all the ingredients into the saucepan and bring up to a boil on medium heat. Position your thermometer. Ok, I'm actually using my probe thermometer and not a real candy thermometer (which is supposed to clip onto the side of the pan), but it works. The important thing is to not let the thermometer touch the bottom of the pan, or it will read hotter than what the candy is. I balance my probe on the side of the pan, and the boiling syrup keeps it lifted up off the bottom. I set the alarm for 240 degrees F, which is the "soft ball stage" in candy-making terms. If your thermometer doesn't have an alarm, just keep an eye on it and watch for it to get between 235 and 240 degrees.

It will get really bubbly and foamy. Be careful because boiling syrup is also known as "culinary napalm" for a good reason. When it gets close to pour time, it will stop being as foamy and have fewer, bigger bubbles blooping around. This is the point where if you didn't have a thermometer, you would start dropping syrup into cold water to see if it makes a soft ball, but like I said, that's too much trouble and you really should use the thermometer.

Have a pan ready that's greased and lined with parchment or wax paper to make de-panning easy. My original recipe says to drop it by spoonfuls, but I prefer to just dump the whole thing in and spread it out evenly. Let it cool completely.

When it's completely cool it should lift up off the pan easily in one big piece. You can then bust it up into individual serving size pieces and put it in a pretty tin. Yes, the tin is another monetary investment you have to make for this gift in addition to the ingredients, but hopefully your grateful relatives will give you back the empty tin once they're done with it for refills next year, like they do your canning jars. (Hopefully!) Then stick the tin in the freezer or something so you won't eat them all up before you have a chance to give them away for Christmas.

Pralines are kind of similar to peanut brittle but easier to make, since pralines are supposed to have a crystalline texture, while peanut brittle is supposed to be glassy and transparent, which requires a little more skill to achieve. They're also super-sweet like a pecan pie, but they're full of nutritious nuts, so that makes up for it right?

Of course, Yule is just not right without cookies. I made a batch of this recipe for Jam Filled Shortbread Cookies with homemade peach jam, and they turned out great.

One thing I did, after reading warnings in the reviews of the cookies spreading too much, was to chill them after they were formed, but before baking. I put them on parchment and then slid them into the freezer for a while until they were firm and cold, and then took them out, filled them, and preheated the oven. They only took about 1/4 teaspoon of jam each. I was tempted to put in more, but didn't want them to run over, and it turns out that was a smart move.

Here they are all baked up nice and pretty. Only a couple broke or ran over, so I had to eat those (darn!), and the rest went into gift tins after they were cooled completely. They are extremely buttery and delicate. I'm sure they would do well with any flavor of jam or preserves.

Now I'm trying to decide if I want to bake any more cookies. I've been drooling at some of the cookie recipes on Tigers and Strawberries. I've also already made a Freerange Fruitcake like I posted about last year, which is curing in rum right now. I think I will take that to a Yule campout I'm going to over New Year's weekend. Maybe baking even more sweets is overkill. My fiance is on a diet, so he can't have any, and I'm running out of people to give cookies to.

On the other hand, I don't have any cookies! Everything I've made so far is designated for other people! Maybe I should make some just for myself! But which kind? Tigers and Strawberries has so many good ones I want to try, like the elegant looking Frostflowers (I've always loved pfeffernuesse, actually, the brand I always got were not tooth-breaking in the least), or the yummy sounding Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies. Even the so-called "humble" oatmeal cookies from that blog sound festive with their cranberries and cardamom. Such a hard decision. It may just come down to how I have all the ingredients to make the oatmeal cookies right now, but I'd have to go to the store to get stuff for the other recipes. And Daniel doesn't like oatmeal raisin cookies, so it would be less tempting for him to cheat on his diet with them. And even if he does cheat, the oatmeal cookies are probably the most nutritious of the bunch.

Yeah, I might go with that and save the other recipes for next year. Which seems so far away! (The Aphrodite Cakes sound perfect for Valentine's Day or Beltane, though, so I might have to wait THAT long to try another of Barbara's cookie recipes, if I can find some rosewater.) But yeah, now I've convinced myself that I MUST bake more cookies!

Finally, one shouldn't forget the non-humans in one's life. They should have holiday goodies too. I just got one of those big seed-cakes to put outside for the critters. One of these days I need to try out making my own. It's fun to watch Mr. Squirrel doing acrobatics to get it.

The woodpeckers like it too. Here's the female Golden Fronted Woodpecker getting some. I've also seen her husband here, and the female Downy Woodpecker than hangs around (she appears to be single), and some chickadees and titmice. The warblers and wrens seem to still prefer the suet.

Lily just likes "helping" with the gift wrapping, as most cats do. Cats always get into the holiday spirit, don't they? Tearing up the wrapping paper, attacking the bows, climbing the Christmas tree. They're very festive animals.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Io Saturnalia, Glad Yule, and Happy New Year to whoever is reading this!

A Real Freeze This Time

Ok, that last one was pretty wimpy. Seems the plants hardly noticed. But not this time. Got down to 26 last night. That's a REAL freeze!

I'm sure the basil in the foreground here is done for. Whatever seeds managed to mature in time is all I'm getting. Once they thaw out I'm cutting them down and taking them in to dry. I hope my other plants, like the cauliflower, collards, lettuce, etc. are ok. I didn't do anything to protect them, besides the mulch they already had. I'll see what happens when they thaw out later this afternoon.

With all the moisture in the air from our rain, there was a lot of frost on everything. Here are my peas all covered in delicate frost crystals. Aren't they pretty? I suppose frost crystals are a common sight up north, but I'm still just fascinated by them.

So it's really winter now!

First Frost

Last night was our first frost. The official low for San Marcos was 28, but my home thermometer only got down to 32 (I have one of those clocks with an indoor and outdoor thermometer in my bedroom, which is how I keep track of these things). I brought in my peppers, pineapple sage, and ginger plants, but the plants that were left outside had hardly any damage, and the bird baths didn't even freeze over.

The only frost damage was to parts of one or two of my Ms. Burns Lemon Basil plants. Which is good because I'm still trying to get a crop of seeds off them. There's no more frost predicted for the next week, so that'll give them some more time to mature some more seeds.

We've also finally been getting some decent rain. Right before Thanksgiving we got over an inch of rain, and we have more forecast for this weekend. We need a whole lot more to undo the drought, but every little bit helps.

It's Finally Officially Autumn!

Friday was the Autumn Equinox, so now for six months the days will be shorter than the nights. That's got to make it cooler, right? We did have a cold front right on the equinox, which made temperatures pleasantly cool... for about a day. We also got some rain, but yesterday it got back up to 102, and they're forecasting a similar day today. I don't think it's supposed to be 100 degrees in late September. Nineties maybe, but the 100's should be over by now.

It's got to cool down sometime, right?

Autumn is traditionally a time to celebrate the harvest, but this year's severe drought has reminded me that sometimes harvest time is a tough time. Sometimes the harvest isn't so bountiful, and you wonder how this little bit of food is going to last you the winter.

It's reminded me that it's probably a good thing I don't have to live off the land myself right now.

I wonder if this is why the fall and winter months have a lot of holidays where people get together. Maybe harvest festivals and Yuletide feasts and gift-giving initially served a survival purpose. Maybe this was a time for the community to get together to help those who didn't end up with as much bounty that year.

And it's not like we're totally immune to that today. The severe drought in Texas is devastating Texas agriculture. Farmers are losing their livelihoods, food prices are going up because of it, and all this on top of the ongoing financial crisis which looks to be headed towards a so called "Double Dip Recession".

Yesterday I finally used a bookstore gift card I received as a gift last Yule to buy a copy of The Resilient Gardener by Carol Deppe, author of How to Breed Your Own Vegetable Varieties, which I've already written about on this blog. I enjoyed her previous book so much, that when I found out she had written another, one about how to help your garden survive hard times (and in return, have your garden help you), I wanted it very badly. When I saw that the bookstore had one autographed copy left (she must have done a book signing there some time that I hadn't heard about), I decided that would be a good use for my gift card.

I'm having trouble resisting the urge to spend the whole day reading this book from cover to cover, but I have some stuff to do for my PAID job I should do first! But I will post a blog entry about it when I finish.

A Very Hot Lammas

There were three men come from the West
Their fortunes for to try,
And these three made a solemn vow:
"John Barleycorn must die."


They plowed, they sowed, they harrowed him in,
Threw clods upon his head,
'Til these three men were satisfied
John Barleycorn was dead.

- "John Barleycorn" English folksong


Now the people increased and became numerous. They lived by hunting, and the more people there were, the less game they found. They were hunting it out, and as the animals decreased, starvation came upon the people.

First Mother pitied them.


The little children came to First Mother and said: "We are hungry. Feed us."


But she had nothing to give them, and she wept. She told them: "Be patient. I will make some food. Then you little bellies will be full." But she kept weeping.


Her husband asked: "How can I make you smile? How can I make you happy?"


"There is only one thing that can stop my tears."


"What is it?" asked her husband.


"It is this: you must kill me," she said.


"I could never do that," he said.


She said, "You must, or I will go on weeping and grieving forever."


Then the husband traveled far, to the end of the earth, to the north he went, to ask the Great Instructor, his uncle Kloskurbeh, what he should do.


"You must do what she wants. You must kill her," said Kloskurbeh.


Then the young man went back to his home, and it was his turn to weep.


But First Mother said: "Tomorrow at high noon you must do it. After you have killed me, let two of our sons take hold of my hair and drag my body over that empty patch of earth. Let them drag me back and forth, back and forth, over every part of the patch, until all my flesh has been torn from my body.

- "Corn Mother" Penobscot legend

I know it might look like a harvested grain field, but this is really a picture of the dead, scorched earth of my backyard. If you think this looks bad, you should see what "exceptional drought" has done to the nearby cornfields. Half-grown stalks, withered and dead and crumbling to dust.

You can see why I'm thinking mostly of the Death aspects of harvest time right now. Of course, in all those legends of dying harvest gods (and goddesses!) from around the world, there is the promise of resurrection and new life coming from their sacrifice.

What happens when that harvest never comes? What happens if John Barleycorn is slain prematurely, not by the sickle, but by drought and scorching heat? What happens if First Mother is killed, but nothing grows from her flesh?

What if this is how things are now that we have sent the Earth's climate into chaos? What if my civilization goes the way of the Anasazi, driven from land that was already marginal for agriculture anyway by lack of rain?

This is what air-conditioned Cabin Fever does to my mind.

Yeah, I ended up making Lammas bread anyway. Well, I needed something to do! The AC is working overtime already with it being over 100 degrees every day now, what will a little baking hurt? Maybe some day I should build a solar oven to bake outside. Feels like an oven outside anyway.

I used this recipe for Honey Whole Wheat Bread. It's a wonderful recipe for a nice, sweet whole wheat bread with molasses and honey. It made the house smell wonderful. It also makes four loaves, so I can eat one right away, and have three frozen for later. That'll make this one baking session more worth it. I made two rectangular loaves in baking pans and cut double Fehu runes into them, and made two round loaves on the baking stone and cut Inguz runes into them (both runes for abundance, and they look good on bread). That night for dinner my celebratory feast was some of this bread with Brie cheese, and some of the pears I got from my CSA. It was delicious, and having a cold dinner seemed to make up for the baking.

Just to keep my spirits up, and keep hope alive that the drought and heat will someday end, I planted a tray of fall crops today. I had lousy luck trying to plant fall crops in August last year, but I'm giving it another try. I planted cauliflower, broccoli raabe, chard, and collard greens. It's sitting on the kitchen table for now. I'm not sure if it will stay there. Depends on if it gets enough light from the kitchen window, and whether the cats decide to mess with it. I'm kind of afraid to put them outside in the heat, or in the stuffy, hot garage, but I don't have a lot of room in the house for them (and no growlights). Since this is all so iffy, I only planted seeds I have plenty more of. Good luck little seeds.

Rain for the Summer Solstice!

Tuesday was the Summer Solstice, and that night, the shortest night of the year, a great big Texas thunderstorm came rolling through and dumped 2.63 inches of rain on us. It was glorious!

There's one of my rain barrels filling up after being dry for a month. This is going to help with those water restrictions since it doesn't apply to rain barrel water.



My plants were so wilted it took a while for any of them to perk up, but they did end up getting a good. It got really humid after the rain, and the rain lasted long enough to soak in good and deep, so the moisture is lasting a long time in the soil.

It may have come too late for some of my plants. Here are my brown and crispy Bloody Butcher tomatoes getting rained on. Don't know if they'll be able to come back. However, the tomatillos, bell peppers, and watermelons perked right back up after that rain and are still looking good.

Fledglings

May seems to be a big month for fledglings here in Central Texas. Lots of young birds have just left the nest and are learning to fly and catch food on their own, always under the watchful eye of their parents. They're basically the bird equivalent of a teenager. You can tell a fledglings because they're as big as an adult bird, but may be "scruffy" looking because they haven't gotten all their adult feathers in yet, and they may have slightly different, usually duller colors and patterns compared to an adult bird. They're also usually accompanied by their busy parents, still begging the parents for food with whiny chirping and wing-fluttering.

They also tend to act dumber than adult birds, and are easier to get close to and don't fly as well. It's a dangerous time in a bird's life. Often the parents will try to make up for this by being extra aggressive with alarm calls, and even swooping at you to get them away from their kids.

Fledgelings, like all teenagers, seem to be hungry all the time. A family of cardinals have been visiting the seed feeder pretty much every morning for a while. The two or three kids they have stay up in the tree, while Dad Cardinal brings them seeds.

Then Dad Cardinal has to go back to the feeder and get some more seeds.

Then back in the tree again to stick them in the kids' hungry mouths. Dad Cardinal is such a good dad! It makes me tired watching him going back and forth and back and forth like this.

Here's one of the Cardinal Kids sitting on the side of the birdbath. Juvenile cardinals can be mistaken for female cardinals, but female cardinals still have bright orange beaks and a black mask, while the kids have a dull beak and no mask.

There's also been a family of Black-crested Titmice at the suet. I've had trouble keeping the suet full with how many birds have been devouring it. Here's the titmouse family back again to clean up every last crumb left. In this picture are two of the siblings fighting over it and making a big racket.

The kids look just like the parents except they don't yet have the black crest. Sorry about the blurriness of these pictures, but birds move so fast it's hard to get clear shots of them. I think the one on the bottom is an adult with a black crest, and the two on top are kids. It looked like there were two parents and about 3-4 kids zipping around.

And finally here's a picture I finally managed to get of the blue jay family in the next door neighbor's overturned trash can lid full of water. I had trouble getting a good picture of these guys, even though every time anybody goes outside, the parent jays go nuts swooping around and screaming. The fledgling blue jays look almost exactly like the parents, just a little bit scruffier. The main way to tell is their behavior. The parents are the ones attacking people, while the kids are the ones always begging for food.

There was also a fledgling mockingbird around, but when I tried to get its picture, Mom and Dad were all, "Oh no you don't!" and quickly lurked Junior away while making angry alarm calls and swooping at me. Blue jays and mockingbirds are two birds species you really don't want to mess with.