The Cheap Vegetable Gardener

How to make your own onion sets

14.2 years ago onions, outdoor seed starting 4 Comments

For a couple years now I have attempted to start onions from seeds and the same thing happens each year.  All is going well, good strong seedlings, then I run out of space in my grow box and the poor seedlings get kicked out to fend for themselves a few weeks to early leading to very few survivors.

This summer I decided to try something new, during the end of July I spread onion seeds generously over about two square feet of my garden.  Now after a month and a half I have some nice little onion seedlings coming up.

I plan on keeping them in the ground until after the first frost the leaves will go yellow/brown and I will harvest my onion sets and lay them out to dry for a few days and store them in an old mesh container where I have bought onion sets a couple of years ago.  Where I can replant them this spring as soon as the soil can be worked.

The benefits of growing your own onion sets is you can grow varieties from species that you can not find even at your favorite online seed company.  Obviously the sets are also much cheaper than buying them already in the set form.  You can grow the onion sets to the specific size you want, which is important because small onion sets grow up to be onion bulbs with the larger ones growing up to become onion flowers.

The best part of this with the amount of rain we have been getting here in the Pacific Northwest the past month, I haven’t even had to water these seeds, so other than a few minutes of sprinkling the seeds, no real effort on my side.

Gard’n Gro Garden Filter review and giveaway

14.2 years ago giveaway, water 25 Comments

As I have mentioned on my post on watering, I like to dechlorinate my water by filling 5 gallon buckets with water and letting them sit overnight.  Though this year I always seemed to not have enough time (or foresight) to be diligent about this and ended up just dragging the hose out and watering the plants chlorine at all.

Fortunately our friends at AllFilters have a solution to this problem with the Gard’n Grow Garden Filter, by simply adding this small inline filter it can remove at least 85% of the chlorine in your water without needing to prefill or carry around heavy buckets.

After opening the package the installation process was a piece of cake.  You simply attach one end of the hose to your outdoor faucet and the other end to the filter.  Attach your garden hose to the other end of the filter and turn on the water.

Now to test this thing out, unfortunately I don’t have any equipment to test for chlorine, but given I am under city water I can smell the chlorine pretty easily.  So for my first test I went with the very scientific smell test and confirmed a huge difference between using the Gard’n Grow Garden Filter.

To try to redeem myself a little more, given I had two cups of water I was sniffing anyway, I put my TDS meter (which for non hydroponic readers measures the total dissolved solids in the water) and though this does not measure chlorine specifically it does pick up various salts in the water.  Actually to my surprise there was a significant difference between the filtered water and the water straight out of the tap, given this benefit was not mentioned in the Gard’n Grow’s literature.  With the tap water the reading was 38ppm and the filtered water 33ppm.

Tap Water                                                        Filtered Water

Last the instructions mentioned that you may have a slight reduction in pressure after installing the filter.  Now this is definitely expected, but I needed to confirm how “slight” we are talking here.  For this I did the 5 gallon fill test.  For the unfiltered test I was able to fill the bucket in 71.6 seconds or 4.18 GPM and the filtered test finished in 79.9 seconds or 3.76 GPM.  Though this is a reduction of volume of about 10%, given my small garden I don’t think I would notice the extra 8.3 seconds I would spend watering.

Overall I was very impressed with this filter and am looking forward to using it to fill my reservoirs for my hydroponic experiments this winter and my garden next spring/summer.

AllFilters has graciously offered to sponsor a giveaway for one of these filters, so as in our other giveaways just leave a comment and a winner will be picked at random on 9/20/2010 Midnight Pacific Time.  If you haven’t already became a fan of CheapVegetableGardener.com on Facebook add us and you can enter an additional comment for a second chance to win.

HomeTown Seeds: 3-Tray Kitchen Seed Sprouter Review and Giveaway

14.2 years ago seeds, sprouting 57 Comments

Last year I played with sprouting seeds in a mason jar to hold me and the kids over during the winter until it was time to start growing for the following spring.  The process worked great but I ended up with way more sprouts than I could consume and most of the sprouts were wasted.  One option was to use smaller jars and stagger the starting of the seeds, but this would leave me to fill and drain 3-4 jars a couple of days.

Fortunately Hometown Seeds has a product (3-Tray Kitchen Sprouter) that solves these problems for me and when they asked it I would want to review this product I jumped at the chance.

The kit comes with 3 trays and a packet of 2 oz of organic alfalfa seeds, which you can fill each with a half of tablespoon of seeds to get a full tray full of sprouts in 2-3 days.  Each tray is easily removable so you can choose to create 3 trays worth of sprouts at a time or create start a new tray every day to always have a fresh supply of sprouts.

After you have added the seeds you put the pieces together and simply fill the top reservoir with water and the sprouter does the rest.  The sprouter uses a syphon technique to allow the tray to partially fill with water before draining to the tray below it, to repeat the process for any other trays you have.

Here you can see the syphoning in action.

I have not tried it myself but I don’t see any reason if you bought multiple kits and stack them as high as you want and have a sprouting factory on your kitchen counter.

Overall I was very impressed with the sprouter it was easy to use and entertaining for my 6-year-old to watch the water drain through the various levels.  Also produced clean quality sprouts without making a mess all over the kitchen counter.  The only negative observation is sometimes the seeds/sprouts can clog the syphon if too many get packed together.  Fortunately when this happened to me, I simply removed the plastic syphon cap and pushed away a few of the seed/sprouts blocking the drain and didn’t have any problems after that, but something to keep an eye on.

Here are some sprouts I after growing for 2 days…tomorrow they will go on some sandwiches.

Hometown Seeds has also graciously offered one of these sprouting systems to readers of CVG, so if you are in the continental United States, just enter a comment below and I will pick a winner at random in one week (9/18/2010 Midnight PST)

How to Extend Your Gardening Season to Enjoy Fall Vegetables:

14.2 years ago fall crops 6 Comments

Most avid gardeners will tell you that planting crops in the summer can produce some wonderfully tasting vegetables. However, many of us are guilty of becoming too complacent with crops during fall months, leaving them diseased and unhealthy. It’s essential that harvesting is continued throughout cold winter months, to ensure vegetables have the best chances of growing naturally and healthily. In fact certain vegetables prefer to grow during cold and frosty conditions notably, leaks and potatoes. So it is always wise to ensure your harvesting areas are kept well looked after all year round. You may need to consider storing vegetables within a potting shed if it’s too early for them to be planted; this will keep them out of the way and well sheltered.

Many fall vegetables can be grown at home, some of which are; lettuce, turnips, leaks, and pumpkins. These crops can be planted during mid-summer once you start to harvest you other vegetables. Early in the summer you should think about what to plant for arrival in the fall. Leeks are one crop that actually survive the frost and thrive in cold weather. The problem is they should actually be planted early on in the year but harvested in the cold months such as late October or November. This means you would have to maintain this crop throughout the spring and summer months as well. They can be planted outside as soon as the soil is dry enough. Butternut squash is another that will keep well with frost and can be harvested in the cold. They are actually sweeter when picked in the cooler temperatures. Just be sure to harvest them before the ground gets frozen solid.
 
To keep fall crops efficiently maintained throughout the summer and into the colder months, they should be planted indoors, allowing them to become seedlings more readily. Place them in the ground once they are a couple inches tall and can withstand the elements. In order to avoid drying out during the summer months it is best to cover your crops in straw or even hay. This will help retain moisture in the soil as much as possible. Once the frost arrives you should keep a close eye on your plants. Some of the plants survive well in frost just as long as the ground doesn’t get frozen solid. Depending on the plant some of them may prefer to be covered with cold frames or tents to avoid the cold shock. You can use an old window frame on legs with a transparent sheet or simply drape transparent sheets over your plants. Make sure it is transparent enough to allow sunlight as this will create a greenhouse effect and keep temperatures warmer underneath.

It may be clear now that vegetables from a home garden can be enjoyed throughout the year. Nevertheless, the only way to achieve this is to maintain your garden throughout the late summer and fall months and carefully choose plants that survive well into the colder months of the fall and winter. As mentioned before plants such as leeks and butternut squash are at their best when harvested in the colder months. Butternut squash is an easy plant to care for in the fall time and only requires harvesting once the frost starts to arrive. Leeks on the other hand can withstand much of the cold of fall and winter but require much longer growing times than other vegetables. Yet, with careful decision making and maintenance of plants in late summer and fall you can almost certainly enjoy these vegetables fresh from your garden even when it’s cold outside.

Robin Hay is an editor/writer working on behalf of tiger sheds. Over the last 12 months he has written numerous articles relating to gardening matters which aim to educate newcomers to the garden environment. To view more of his work please visit – http://www.tigersheds.com/garden-resources/

How to make chipotle pepper powder (smoked Jalapenos)

14.2 years ago chipotle, jalapeno, smoker 14 Comments

In my last post I talked about my quest for a cheap smoker to make some of my own chipotle pepper powder.  Typically chipotle pepper powder is made using red ripe jalapenos and smoked for about 24 hours.

Given my lack of ripe jalapeno peppers (had 3 small ones) and it being the beginning of August I opted to make an alternate variety of brown chipotle powder.  While picking pecks of jalapeno peppers I also noticed I had some sweet peppers with no plans so decided to use them to make some sweet smoked paprika.

I started by splitting the jalapeno peppers from step to end (leaving other side attached and pulling  them apart slightly.  If you want a little less heat you can scrap out the seeds and membrane they are attached to, but given my current tolerance to peppers I probably wouldn’t really tell the difference so I kept them in.

I then sliced the sweet peppers into slices in approximately the same width as the peppers with hopes they would end up drying about the same time (should have gone a little wider then pictured below.

With the pepper neatly arranged on my Brinkmann Smoke’N Grill Charcoal Smoker and Grill (El Cheapo Brinkmann aka ECB) it was time to start smoking.  Though you can smoke peppers and many temperatures, from my research traditionally they are smoked at 125F using hardwoods such as hickory, pecan, apple (or other fruit woods)  I personally went with a combination of hickory and apple wood.

With the little experience I have done with my new smoker, I decided that doing this with charcoal (if even possible) would lead to a lot of smoker tending and much lost sleep.  This led me to pick up a $10 electric hot plate at my local Bartell Drug Store and a heavy duty pie pan at a thrift store for $0.50.

Next I placed the electric hot plate and pan with a handful of wood chips (soaked for 30 minutes) on a small cinder block and placed my smoker (fire/water pan removed) over the my heater contraption.  After playing with the variable temperature on the hot plate I found that about Medium/Medium High produced some decent smoke as you can see in the video below (this is a little too much I turned it down just a hair after recording video)

 

After closing everything up the smoker was cooking at a perfect 125F, now this would be terrible for BBQ meat but perfect for smoking peppers.  Ever 3-4 hours (when smoked stopped) I emptied the ashes out of the pan and added new water soaked chips and waited.

After 16 hours in the smoker, I decided that was enough and  here are how the peppers looked before moving them to the food dehydrator to complete their drying process.

I wanted to use the peppers for powder so I made sure they were very brittle and I moved them out into the dehydrator at 130F for about 20 hours.  Though for softer leathery peppers could be used in sauces (chipotle adobo sauce) you could leave them in for about 12 hours for slightly softer peppers.

Green Jalapeno Peppers (Meco “Brown” Chipotle Peppers)

Red Jalapeno Peppers (Morita Chipotle Peppers)

Sweet Peppers (Smoked Sweet Paprika)

Just for fun I decided to combine a couple of each variety into my Magic Bullet with the grinding attachment and made some powder which I am storing in an old spice container.  The rest I stored in a Ziploc bag.

How to use chipotle peppers

• BBQ Spice: Good addition to injections or for food that does not have the advantage of staying on the grill long enough to get a nice smoky flavor (steaks/hamburgers/chicken)
• Chipotle Mayonnaise: Take a cup of mayo and add 1/4 to 1/2 tsp. of chipotle powder to give a very different flavor to your traditional mayonnaise.
• Chipotle Salt: With flavored sea salts becoming so popular lately, you can save some money by just adding 1.5 to 2 tsp. of chipotle powder to 1 cup of sea salt.  This along with a little freshly cracked pepper is a very simple seasoning for a great tasting steak.
• Chipotle Adobo Sauce: Add 1 tsp. of chipotle powder to 1/4 cup of ketchup to make your own great tasting chipotle adobo sauce.
• Pizza Sauce: Like the taste of wood oven pizza but lack the wood oven.  Add a 1/2 tsp. of Chipotle powder to 1 cup of pizza sauce for a wood oven baked flavor.
• General: Add to soup, salsa, spaghetti, chili, tacos, salad, vegetables, breadsticks, sandwiches, or anything else you want to add a little spicy and smoky flavor.

Closing Remarks

As you can see this little spice is very versatile and has many uses on your outdoor grill and/or kitchen.  Like most spices your chipotle powder should last for 12 months in a sealed container, but you can keep the flavors more potent by keeping the peppers intact and only grind them when you need to use it (or will use it in the next month or so).

Building a BBQ Smoker

14.2 years ago cheap, jalapeno, smoker 8 Comments

After many suggestions that I should smoke my jalapeno peppers in comments of my making jalapeno pepper powder post, I decided to give it a try.  After doing a little looking most recommendations say to use a new or very clean smoker so this eliminates using my propane grill as smoker and an excuse opportunity to make myself a smoker.

After a little research on the internet I determined my two potential proposed homemade smoker solutions.

First is Anton Brown’s flower pot smoker, which takes a couple of terra cotta pots and a 16 inch grill.  This is electric powered using a hot plate topped with a pie pan full of wet wood chunks/chips.

The second design I liked was the aluminum trash can smoker design, which is basically the same idea as the flower pot design except (obviously) you use a garbage can instead of the flower pots.  You use the hot plate and pie tin in the same manner.

Armed with my design ideas in my head I was off to my local home improvement store to pick up some materials.  I first started with the flower pot design but I couldn’t find the azalea pot bug enough to cover the bottom terra cotta pot, nor a grill to fit.  That along with the estimated prices being $60-70 dollars not even including the electric heater.

Optimistic I checked out the aluminum garbage cans, though there was a similar problem of not being able to find a grill to fit right.  I thought about creating a couple supports using metal rods or attaching with a few pieces of wire.  In the end the cost of the can/grill minus the electric heater was about $50-60 and I get the great aesthetics of a garbage can smoker in my back yard.

This led to my eventual purchase of the Brinkmann Smoke’N Grill Charcoal Smoker and Grill for $40 or as it is affectionately known online as the ECB (El Cheapo Brinkmann)  Though not as DIY as the previous two versions but given it was cheaper, looks a little better in my backyard, and I have the option of cooking with charcoal seemed like the obvious choice.

Though the hacker in me could not resist making a couple of minor modifications.  First I added a real thermometer given the Warm/Ideal/Hot was a little lacking in specific information.

Second I used some of my leftover wire from the construction of my soil sieve cut to size with the corners bent to elevate the charcoal about an inch from the bottom to allow the ashes to not smother the lit coals.

I completed the 2 hour curing process using charcoal and will be smoking some peppers this labor day weekend, so stay tuned.