Problem: misters do not deliver enough water with the frequency that I can get round to using them;

SOLUTION: create a seedling waterer

Materials:

==>Small, mabe pint-size, take-out tub.  Preferably one of those ones that you never can find the lid for.
==>1/16″ drill

Method

Drill 5 or so holes in a rosette pattern around the bottom of the tub.  Now, hold it over your seedlings and pour water in from a pitcher or flask.  Watch raindrop-sized water droplets fall onto your seedlings.

As near as I can tell, the only problem is that when the tub is less than half full, the water pressure is about equal to the surface tension over the holes, so the water doesn’t flow out.  The workaround is to pour in more water.

Post is categorized “outdoors” even though it’s indoors, because the garden goes in that category.

1) I had a conversation with my landlady yesterday about how we might not have any more conflict about the garden. We agreed that I can plant anywhere that I want to, so long as a) I put a border around my garden, and b) I do not use the fence as a trellis again this year.

2) The hops are budding aggressively, so I am now thinking about what sort of trellis they might like this year. I have a few weeks before I have to decide.

3) Today I planted mustard greens and sage around the hops, as well as a few perennial wildflowers.

This may also be the meal that sealed the deal on my three-month vegan experiment. Recipe below the jump.

Total prep time: about an hour.

Materials:

1 package (12 oz) extra-firm tofu
1 can (or equivalent amount home-made) cranberry sauce. Whole-berry preferable.
Soy sauce, 2 tbsp
1 lime (juice and zest of)
1 stalk lemon grass (optional)
1 can coconut milk
1-2 tbsp Sambal Ulek (or genic asian hot chili pepper sauce)
2-3 leeks
1 onion
Asparagus, one bunch
Fresh ginger, 1 thumb’s worth, grated
basil, fresh or dried (copious)
Tarragon or cilantro
Whole-grain Fettuccine or udon noodles.
Olive oil for sautéing.

Method:

mix 1/4 cup cranberry sauce with 2 tbsp soy sauce, tbsp sambal ulek, and the zet and juice of one lime. Cut tofu into strips and marinate in this mixture from 30 minutes to overnight.

About an hour before you want to serve dinner, preheat your oven to 375 degrees. While oven is preheating, arrange the tofu strips in a single layer in an oven-safe baking dish with a cover. Or in a casserole dish, and cover with aluminium foil. Pour marinade on top of tofu. Bake for half an hour covered, then remove cover, bake for 15 minutes, and turn off heat until ready to serve.

Once tofu is in the oven, clean and dice the leeks and mince the onion. In a large skilled, heat a tablespoon or two of olive oil over high heat. On another burner, bring a medium saucepan full of water to a rolling boil. Add onion and leeks to hot oil, toss about, then cover and reduce heat to low for fifteen minutes, or until the alliums are well-steamed. Then add basil, tarragon, and ginger. Raise heat to high, and cook for one minute. Then add coconut milk and asparagus spears, and cover. Simultaneously add noodles to boiling water. When coconut milk is simmering, reduce heat to medium. After about ten minutes, asparagus should be well-steamed and tender. Remove from heat. Serve coconut cream vegetables over pasta, and top with baked tofu. Garnish with a bit more tarragon or a sprig of fresh basil, mint, or cilantro. Serve remaining cranberry sauce as a side.

I considered adding shiitake mushrooms, but forgot to put them in. If you do this (or make the chicken variant), post the results here?

The route starts in Lowell, heading south on MA 110 to MA 4, and following that road to Bedford, MA. It’s a steady, gentle climb from the start to the Billerica line, then after a slight dip, a steep uphill slog for a mile and a half to Rangeway Road. “Steep” here is not more than a 2% grade, but around here that’s practically vertical. From here on to Bedford it’s basically flat. In terms of scenery, this section progresses rapidly from urban to suburban to rural, past marshes and meadows and forest, with beautiful crossings over Russel Mill Pond (mi. 6.5) and the Concord River (mi. 9.5). From Lowell to Bedford is completely exposed to the sun, so bring sunglasses and sunscreen.

Halfway through Billerica I realized that I had forgotten my helmet in Lowell. Oops. That’s important. But given that the highway riding was nearly done, I decided it would be safer to press on than to retrace it all.

At Bedford, there’s a Whole Foods just off the road, and I decided that Sushi would make the perfect mid-trail snack. I was right.

Across the street from the Bedford Whole Foods, a brief jaunt down Webber Ave to Loomis St puts you at the northern terminus of the Minuteman Commuter Bikeway. The trailhead is a little tricky to find–it’s behind the old Boston and Maine railroad car. On a nice day, follow the bright yellow spandex.

The bikeway is an 11-mile green tunnel, under almost 100% forest cover. Sunglasses went in the panniers here. The trail passes through the towns of Bedford, Lexington, Arlington and Cambridge before ending at Alewife Station. Frequent road crossings are marked by stop signs on the trail, and local motorists are very good about yielding to walkers and cyclists. The busier crossings have traffic lights with trigger buttons for the trail users. In Lexington, the trail passes by a town park where there was some kind of concert going on that the entire town seemed to have turned up for. Just past the park, across from the Seasons Four nursery is a huge patch of wild raspberry bushes, which made for a convenient water and berry-picking stop.

At the Lexington Arlington line, the trail crosses south of Arlington’s Great Meadows, a 180-acre virgin wet meadow with hiking trials around its uplands. At Arlington Center, the bikeway breaks and requires you to ride for a block along Mass Ave, but the signage is good and again, there are always other cyclists to follow.

At Alewife, follow the signs to Davis Square via Linear Park, which is a multi-use trail paved on top of the red line subway connection between Davis and Alewife. Again, there is a slightly awkward crossing over Mass Ave. This part of the trail is narrower and has more pedestrians and dog walkers, so use caution. On yesterday’s ride I nearly had to stop to avoid a small, curious dog whose human was so lost in her iPod that she had no idea it was running straight for my bike!

At Davis Square, the trail is done. Ice cream, beer, and BBQ are good options here. Map of the route below

I’ve been asked for pictures, so here they are, using a gatorade bottle as an example:

Materials:

Tools for the plastic bottle planters

I used four tools that I had lying around to make the planters:

• A pair of scissors
• An X-acto knife–I wouldn’t use one with a metal handle!)
• An old, 15-watt soldering iron.  A higher-power soldering pen or wood-burning iron would work better
• A small, hand-held butane torch.  This produces a 2400º flame and is powered by an ordinary cigarette lighter.  It makes me happy.

If you have a wood-burning pen with a hot knife tip, you can dispense with the knife and torch.  Alternatively, you could use a gas stove to heat the knife.  If you don’t have a gas stove, a torch, or a wood-burning pen, you can do this with a pair of scissors and a ball-point pen as your ownly tools.  It will just be less elegant.

Besides the tools, you will need a 1-litre or bigger plastic bottle, some soil, and something to plant in it.

Technique:

First, remove the label.  Hot water inside the bottle will dissolve the adhesive so it’ll come right off.  Just don’t put boiling water in a soda bottle–you will shink the bottle and possibly burn yourself!

First cut the plastic bottle.  For the gatorade bottle the picture shows where to make the cut.  If you are using a soda bottle, Inside Urban Green has tips on where to cut.  This is where the hot knife comes in–it’s easier to make the first incision with heat, but you could do it with an unheated knife and some brute force.

Cut Bottle

Click on the photo for a bigger copy–it’s cut right below the curvy bit.  The gist is that the curvy bit, upside-down, should fit in the other bit so that the lip of the bottle just touches the bottom.

Next, it’s time to poke some holes in the curvy bit.  These holes allow the soil to drain excess moisture, and there’s some suggestion that humid aeration is good for the roots.

Here I used the 15-watt soldering iron.  This is an old iron that barely gets hot anymore (I think there’s some corrosion impeding thermal conductivity), but a better-working or hotter iron would do the trick.

Finally, the planter needs a wick–this will irrigate the soil by capillary action from below.  Or in simpler terms, it will suck water up into the soil!  A scrap of fabric from an old pair of jeans works marvelously!

That’s it–I just scooped some potting mix into the planter and added a few mustard seeds–they should germinate in 4-10 days.

Turns out, it’s easy.

Eqipment:

1 wide-mouth quart mason jar
1 pint mason jar
Spare change, pebbles, or something else heavy.

Ingredients:

Six limes
1 garlic bulb
1 hand of ginger
Lots of kosher or pickling salt
3 ounces of hot chili peppers (that’s a lot)
Methi (fenugreek) seeds (they’re not in the spice section of your local grocery; they’re in the ‘foreign’ or ‘ethnic’ section).
Mustard seeds
Ground turmeric

Method:

Cut limes into thin wedges over a bowl, catching the juice.  Put wedges in bowl and salt liberally. Cut tops off the hot peppers, slice down the side, throw in bowl with limes and salt liberally.  Slice garlic and ginger thin, put in bowl, and salt liberally.  Mix.  Violently.  The mixture should smell very limey.  Toss in methi and mustard seeds.

Pack the mixture into your quart mason jar.  I emphasize pack.  The items should not be loosely tossed in, but squished with all of your might, so as to remove any air pockets and thoroughly juice the limes.  Fill your pint jar with spare change and use it to really ram the vegetables down into the quart jar.  Then leave it in place to hold everything under the lime juice.  If the lime juice does not fully cover the vegetables, squish more.  If it still isn’t enough, go buy some lime juice and squirt it in until they’re covered.

Wait a week or three.  Refrigerate.  Eat.

Update: One of my two quarts is now done after ten days, and very tasty.  Could use some more fermenting, but I’m gonna call it good.  The other, which is wetter due to more added lime juice, still tastes fresher.  So I’m leaving it out longer.

Ingredients:

Cranberry Kombucha!

1 bottle store-bought Kombucha, any flavor (buy it at whole foods or your local health-food store).
1 cup sugar (cane, beet, corn, maple, whatever)
4 tea bags (your choice) or equivalent amount of loose tea
1 gallon-size crock pot (or scale up)
5 fluid ounces cranberry cocktail concentrate (with real sugar, not HFCS.  You could use straight up cranberry juice to similar effect)

Protocol:

Brew tea.  Very strong.  In crock pot.
Add sugar
Cool to room temperature
Add half bottle of store-bought Kombucha.  Drink the rest.  If you drink too much, add whatever’s left.
Cover your crock pot with a towel (NOT the lid–this is supposed to be an aerobic fermentation!), and set aside in a place where it won’t be disturbed for a few weeks.

Let sit completely undisturbed for at least a month.  I mean don’t even move it across your counter.  If you do move it, it’s not the end of the world, but it will screw up the structural integrity of your Symbiotic Colony of Bacteria and Yeast (SCOBY).

After your month is up there should be a mushroomy-looking film on top of your Kombucha.  This is the SCOBY.  It is good.  Take a teaspoon (well-washed) and taste the product.  If it is sour and tasty, you did it right.  If it smells repulsive or otherwise “off,” do not taste it–either throw it out or at least get a second opinion from somebody who knows Kombucha.  If there are bits of mold growing on top of the SCOBY your Kombucha may be fine, but you will not be able to use that SCOBY again.  If everything is shiny on top of the SCOBY, then gently lift it onto a plate, bottle your Kombucha (mason jars work fine), leaving a cup or two in the crockpot. This is where I add the cranberry.  I used a cranberry cocktail concentrate with added cane sugar to cut the tartness and make it fizzy.   Make a new batch of tea and start again, putting your new SCOBY on top.  Just be sure to cool the tea before you mix it with the old batch or put the SCOBY on, lest you kill your culture.

Solution: Put bits on sandwich.  Details below, along with suggested substitutions.

Bits:

1 Uglyripe Tomato
1/2 White Onion
1 bucket mixed weird salad greens
1/2 tub baby bellas
1 link Tofurkey brand Italian Sausage substitute.  Consider any German, Italian, or Polish sausage (cooked), or the veggie-sausage of your choice.  Breakfast sausages not recommended.
1 jar Irish Stout Mustard (consider any good honey mustard, brown mustard, or condiment-of-choice)

Garlic salt
Black pepper
Asiago cheese (consider parmesan, cheddar, or fresh mozzarella)
Slightly sweet kaiser-ish rolls
Made-from-food organic ketchup
Dill pickles

Protocol:

Toast roll over low heat on skillet until insides are lightly burnt and outside is soft and mushy.  While that’s going:

Slice sausage into bits (or crumbles).  Slice up appropriate amount of shrooms and onion for number of sandwiches (in my case: 1).  Mix in bowl and douse in garlic salt.  I then sauteed all of that and a heap of shredded asiago in a cast iron skillet over medium heat with canola oil.  I would not put the cheese in next time.  If you are using cheddar put the cheese on top of the rest at the very end when everything is cooked, then cover until the cheese melts.  With asiago, parma, or romano I would go ahead and shred the cheese right onto the sammich after hot veggies are added.  With mozzarella I would put a nice briney slice of fresh, raw mozz right on the sandwich without any use of heat on the cheese.

Put stuff on sammich.  Eat.  Drink pumpkin ale.  Be merry.