Su Ba

Ok folks, who’s going buff the garden tomorrow?  Anybody besides this old lady——me?

We sell direct to the consumer…….live animals only. Our closest slaughterhouse is a two hour drive away and charges more than we could sell the meat for. And with all the regulations about selling processed meat here in Hawaii , we don’t even try it.

So where do our iambs go?  Private owners….for lamb (they do their own butchering), for "lawnmowers"(popular here), for establishing their own flocks, and for giving away.  We could lamb 3 crops in 2 years, but I prefer one lamb crop per year to keep the girls in good shape. At the moment we have 8 ewes, having lost several due to a dog attack. But I plan to keep lambs for myself this year to get up to 12 ewes again. We normally produce 15 to 18 lambs a year, enough to keep us supplied in lamb for ourselves and extra for selling and giving.

There is an underground here where people share or giveaway free meat. So you can get part of a  lamb, goat, or pig carcass. Hunters will frequently give meat away, sharing it. It actually a Hawaiian tradition to share your excess. Food is shared, never wasted. I often give our extra lamb and pig to our local soup kitchen. Local fishermen give part of their catch. There is one retired fisherman here who still enjoys going out fishing. He gives his entire catch away. He now considers fishing his hobby.

You would think that I am losing money by giving meat away. Not so, really. By being generous I reap a lot in return every week. Again——Hawaiian tradition to share food. Not a week goes by that I am not blessed with the gift of food. An example: this past week I received a meal of chicken wings and rice, another of homemade beef and bean soup. Two servings of crackers with two different homemade spreads for them (enough for dinner for two) , a jar of papaya jam, a glass of fresh homemade tea, a mug of local coffee, a mini-fruit pie, two homemade chocolate chip cookies, several ginger cookies, a  hand of bananas, and a container of fresh homemade tuna salad (enough for several sandwiches). I shared a pizza from friends. I got a fresh salad with homemade dressing while hubby was given a hamburger. Every week it’s different. Every week we receive enough to make several meals. And I then reciprocate with veggies, fruits, meat, eggs when I can.

The food looks yummy!

I haven’t worn a dress in years, but they look really nice on you. You’ve put the thought into my head that it would be nice to go out to dinner with my husband. I still have a lovely dress hanging up, so I’ll need to wash it to freshen it up. And I think I have a necklace of beads. No heels, but I’ve got some nice sandals. Thanks for the idea.

Chalkboard squeaks are number one in my list. Hated the sound even as a first grader back in the dark ages. It not only "hurt" my ears, but it sent a shivering cringe through my body.

The most dreaded sound right now is the sound of a cat puking up a hairball in my bedroom at 1 o’clock in the morning, especially if said cat is sleeping on my bed. YIKES !

Clarification ———-  it’s not the white butterflies themselves that do the destructions, it’s their offspring. The female lays its eggs on the plants. Those hatch into caterpillars which eat the leaves and flower buds.

Phil, those white butterflies were our bane too. We would pick off every one that we spied.  But they’d be inside the heads where we could not see them until we harvested. They were ruining the broccoli for selling. We have dozens of the butterflies flitting above the garden due to the wild brassicas around us. Our choices for control seemed to be use a row cover or use dipel. We choose dipel because of the heavy winds we often experience here. The wind is strong enough to rip the pegged down weed cloth right up off the ground up in the main garden. So row cover would not have had a chance there.

I tried this current crop of broccoli on the sheltered side of our greenhouse.  This is the only spot protected somewhat from the brisk winds. We had considered trying row cover, but due the expense and lack of money, we went with the dipel.

One thing that concerned me was that the soil in this spot is dense and compacted, impossible to thrust a shovel into (or a pick, piece of rebar, or even a knife). One can use a mattock and work your way down inch by inch with repeated blows, if you wanted a super workout for days on end. Not great garden soil for sure. What I did to prepare the ground was to layer on 3 to 4 inches of manured compost and wet it down well, soaking the soil beneath. The next day I went  inch by inch working a 12" strip of ground with a mantis tiller, going down 3 inches into the ground. This made a friable bed to plant seedlings into.

We have a broccoli for the market this week. In the past we never had success in getting decent heads. The plants did terrible. But we appear to have worked out the kinks, and hope to have broccoli as a regular offering for now on.

What did we do differently?
…choose a heat tolerant variety
…Till in a generous amount of compost before planting
…tap the plants daily to dislodge stink bugs
…watch for aphids daily and spray with soap solution if noted
…watch for cabbage moths and spray dipel if seen
…keep soil evenly moist, taking care not to over or under water
…keep plants mulched
…use iron phosphate around plants to help control slugs and snails
Since the coneheads and Chinese rose beetles did not do debilitating damage, we have not addressed them yet.

Been a while since I’ve checked in. Well folks, us old geezers are still at it (only 2 of us are under 65 years old). We’re producing lots of good, clean food. We are up to 9 full 6 foot long tables full of trays. And we right now expanding the garden, so expect to see another table or two added this spring.

The majority of our food is sold at the farmers market at prices around Costco’s. Our aim is to keep food affordable….but at the same time, not competing too much with other local growers. This means that we won’t be growing cucumbers, slicing tomatoes, turnips, colored daikon and radishes, lettuce, snap peas, cow peas, Lima beans, kale, chard, and a some other things from time to time.

We’ve managed to beat back several of the problems that tortured us. Nene, rats, slugs and snails, aphids, pigs, and weeds. At least, we can control the worst of these problems now. And we have learned that visually checking the crops 2-3 times a week is necessary when not using chemical means. But in spite of this, we are still learning and trying to improve.

We have all come to realize that local small farmers here struggle to make even a low-income profit from farming. All of our volunteers now appreciate our local truck farmers. And we understand why most resort to using modern farming equipment, row techniques, pesticides, and herbacides. Small farming is really tough.

Anyway…..we are still at it. Here’s sone pictures.

Creamed tomatoes over toast is one of my go-to easy dinners. And it’s on my favorite list. But as I age, my recipe has become less and less complicated.

Heat a frying pan, using enough bacon grease (or butter) to just cover the bottom. While the pan heats, slice tomatoes into 1/2 inch thick slices, and dredge them in flour. Lay the tomato slices in the pan, enough of them to cover the bottom of the pan. Fry a few minutes on each side, allowing the flour to make a bit of a crust. Spoon some flour over the top of the cooked tomatoes, perhaps 2 tablespoons. Experience will tell you how much you need in order to create a creamy sauce. If the mix is too dry (that is, there’s dry flour not incorporated), I’ll add a bit more bacon grease.  Stir in one can of evaporated milk. Stir until thickened. While stirring, I’ll add Parmesan cheese and some sort of minced herbs for seasoning (whatever I have on hand).  Serve over toast. Yum.

Now, most folks use big tomatoes for this. But here in Hawaii, those are difficult to grow, so I don’t have them often. But I have an abundance of large cherry type tomatoes. I just slice these in half and proceed as usual. And when I’m short on bread, I serve the creamed tomatoes over something else…..rice, mashed or fried potatoes, even steamed snap beans.

It was my understanding that milk is thought to help prevent kidney stones. I have no personal experience, though. A friend who used to live in my area had problems with oxalate crystals/stones. Milk consumption was suggested. His incidence of oxalate problems was greatly reduced with generous milk consumption.

Perhaps it depends upon what type of crystals your father’s body was producing. Oxalate is just one type.