The Cheap Vegetable Gardener

How to freeze strawberries

14.4 years ago freezing, strawberries 12 Comments

One thing I realized halfway through the winter was that I did not nearly save enough berries to make it through.  With local strawberries showing up in my garden and in the farmers market this seemed like a perfect time to get an early start this year.

Freezing strawberries is much like freezing other berries strawberries are just as easy with just a few simple steps:

1.  Quickly wash and gently dry strawberries with a towel

2.  Cut of crowns (optional but much easier to do now than when frozen)

3.  Place strawberries upside-down on wax paper on cookie sheet

4.  Put strawberries in freezer for 24 hours

5.  Dump frozen strawberries into freezer bag and use Poor Man’s Vacuum Pack*

With these simple steps you can have plenty of strawberries for making smoothies or strawberry shortcake this summer/winter.  This process can scale from many flats of berries or just a handful extra from your garden.  Eat what you want fresh, freeze the rest.

1. * Poor Man’s Vacuum Pack: Close ZipLoc bag with only enough space to fit in a drinking straw.  Suck out air with drinking straw and quickly close the bag.

Winner of the "Garden Safe gift pack giveaway"

14.4 years ago Uncategorized 4 Comments

And the winner of the GardenSafe Gift Pack is…Ashley.  Thank you for everyone who entered.  I am still looking for more giveaways coming soon so you should have another chance to win shortly…

Garden Safe gift pack giveaway

14.5 years ago cheap, free, free gardening tool, giveaway 103 Comments

Last week I was contacted by Garden Safe asking if I would like some samples and given I used the last of my insecticidal soap protecting my peas from aphids I graciously agreed.  Expecting to get a couple bottles to try out I was definitely surprised to get the lifetime supply (at least fro my little garden above)

Not wanting to share the love with my readers they also agreed to offer a gift pack to giveaway.  Not only does it include the products pictured below but also a garden tote bag with a weeding fork, sprayer, hand rake, trowel, transplanter, and clipper AND $20 gift card to Lowe’s.  I don’t know the exact retail value of this gift package but my back of the envelope estimate is at least $100.

 
Rules:

1. Enter one comment to enter

2. Mention this contest on your blog, enter another comment for another chance to win

3. Entries in by 06/25/2010 12:00PM Pacific Time

4. Become a fan on Facebook , enter another comment for another chance to win

5. Winner will be randomly chosen from comments on Saturday, 06/25/2010 

Scallions, green onions, and spring onions

14.5 years ago green onions, onions 8 Comments

I guess while we are at lets not leave out shallots, salad onions, bunching onions, and green sticks.  For the purists a scallion is technically slightly less mature than a green onions.  No matter what you call them this is a very versatile version of the conventional mature bulb version of the vegetable and shouldn’t be overlooked in your garden.

What is great about green onions is the provide a milder onion taste when you want to avoid the overpowering taste mature onions can bring.  This is why green onions are commonly used raw or cooked into many Asian dishes as well as soup, noodle, and seafood dishes.  One of my favorite uses for green onions is in my garden salsa mango salsa, or black bean and corn salsa.

What is good to remember when you are growing green onions is obviously you will be pulling them before they create bulbs and mature so you can plant them very close together (i.e. the term bunching onions)  This is great when you are like me with not a lot of room to grow vegetables so anytime I can do some intensive spacing the better.

So if you forgot to grow onions this year, don’t fret it is not too late to start your green onions, scallions, spring onions, shallots, salad onions, green sticks, or bunching onions.  I know someone else has another name for these that I missed, if so please add it to the comments…

Starting seeds in paper towels

14.5 years ago indoor seed starting, seeds 9 Comments

Most often I start my seeds in a mix of coconut coir and perlite in seeding cells or small containers, though there are occasions when it may be better to start your seeds in a simple paper towel.

Before going into the benefits first lets go over the technique:

1. Get a paper towel, napkin, or coffee filter and spray with water so it is moist (not soaking wet or the seeds could rot)
2. Add a few seeds and folder over the paper to cover them.
3. Place the paper and seeds into a zip lock bag (I like to use the snack sized ones) and place in a warm location (top or refrigerator, water hearer, etc)
4. Check every day or so do see if seedlings have emerged and water as needed
5. When seedlings emerge very carefully place the strongest seedlings into dirt cups.

Tips

• Instead of trying to remove the seeds from the paper, you can simply cut around the seedling and plant both into the ground.  The paper will eventually erode away without affecting the seedling.
• You can also use this technique to plant the seedling right into the ground.

This technique is great for many reasons:

• Allows for faster germination rates and times
• Great if you have limited space for seedlings (stack of zip lock bags take up much less space than 40/50 seed cells)
• More consistent moisture
• Less dirt on your counters
• Great option for rare, poor germination rates and/or very slow germinating times (think hot peppers with 3-4 weeks germination delays)  With this method you can keep close tabs on the progress and know after a week or two if you need to start some more (or buy some new seeds)

For the home grower this is a great space saving technique and due to the water retention in the bags it is nearly impossible to lose seedlings due to lack of watering.

Ultimate Aquaponics setup

14.5 years ago aquaponics, herbs, hydroponics, indoor growbox 8 Comments

I actually thought I already posted about this bad boy which unfortunately is only a design concept from Philips.  For those that are not familiar:

Aquaponics is the symbiotic cultivation of plants and aquatic animals in a recirculating environment.

Aquatic animal effluent (for example fish waste) accumulates in water as a by-product of keeping them in a closed system or tank (for example a recirculating aquaculture system). The effluent-rich water becomes high in plant nutrients but this is correspondingly toxic to the aquatic animal.

Source Wikipedia

This system is called the BioTower, the first 2 levels are hydroponic plants with the third being algae.  The fourth layer contains shrimp and fish which produce organic waste which is stored in the bottom layer.

The lights are powered using optical fibers from the sun and the methane from the organic waste powers the lights at night.  The plants and seafood can then be consumed all powered by the various ecosystems.

I couldn’t even imagine what something like this would cost if it came out of the design phase, though a simple cover over the organic waste and this would make a great conversation piece.