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Hot Pepper Sauce Batch 19 – Entry 9
Rain and persistent cold weather have slowed the peppers to a crawl. There's still a few left on the plants, but not enough to hold off on moving the hot sauce to its resting stage. To enhance the flavor I add a couple of oak staves to the pepper brew and let it sit for another 8 - 12 weeks. American oak happens to be high in a compound called vanillin, which is why things that age in American oak barrels (like Bourbon) have subtle vanilla aromas and flavors. Toasting the oak helps make those flavors more pronounced, so [keep reading...]
Keyhole Garden – December 15, 2019
No rain, but near freezing temperatures has the broccoli confused about what to do. Fortunately, the lettuce (front left) has no such problem.
Gaucho the Rooster
This magnificent little guy is Gaucho, so named because of his fancy feathered feet and the exotic dance that makes him irresistible to the ladies. At age 11(!), he's basically our feathered Ricardo Montalbán.
Chinese lantern adds a bit of color
Painted abutilon (Abutilon pictum) in bloom in December It's cold, it's wet and most of the plants are hunkered down for the winter. Were it not for this one little Chinese Lantern (Physalis Alkekengi) painted abutilon (Abutilon pictum), the view out my office window would be very earthtone.
2020 Poultry Pinup Chicks
I know it's dorky, but I am totally geeking on the new 2020 Avian Health calendar I got from the feed store today. It's free from the California Department of Agriculture, so I may get another one to put up in the coop for the roosters. They dig pinup chicks.
Keyhole Garden – December 8, 2019
Another 3" of rain and continued cool weather this week, but the keyhole garden continues to thrive. The broccoli (rear of the garden) is doing well, the romaine lettuce (right side) is doubling each week. We were even able to harvest some cilantro yesterday for enchiladas the mrs. is making.
Hot Sauce Batch 19 – entry 8
Here it is, week 12 since I started the peppers fermenting. I don't know how it's possible, but the Hidden Lake Hot peppers in the garden are still hanging in despite heavy and 40 degree temperature swings between night and day. I managed to pick about 2-3 ounces of fresh pepper for a new addition (along with 1/4 teaspoon of salt, but no additional water), and will probably get 2-3 ounces more based on the number of peppers and new flowers on the plants right now. Hidden Lake hot peppers still flowering and producing fruit in December I [keep reading...]
Citrus Season
Rain and wind make for terrible growing conditions around the acre for everything but the citrus. For the first time in several years it looks like all the trees -- navel orange, grapefruit, mandarin and tangerine -- will be full of fruit this winter. All well and good. Not only do us people enjoy the fruit, but the ducks are big fans too.
Dry Creek Flows Again (Video)
Until November 27th, we hadn't had any rain in 186 days. Then the Thanksgiving storm rolled in off the Pacific and proceeded to dump so much water that the dry creek in my lower yard flowed the earliest it has in years. Normally we don't see water in it until late January or February. Guess it's going to be a wet year.
Keyhole Garden – November 30, 2019
Second week of the keyhole garden's winter plantings. We had 3 inches of occasionally heavy rains which could have easily pounded the young herbs and vegetables into the mud. Instead, the garden absorbed the water and drained it away beautifully. Even though it's cool and cloudy, the plants are doing beautifully.
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