Beet Juice! Beet Juice! Beet Juice!

Now I want to watch Beetlejuice...but never mind that. Today, I spent my late morning canning. It's something that I've been doing for the better part of two weeks. See it's one thing to grow or harvest vegetables and fruits, quite another to store said items. Needless to say, the pantry is beaming with canned goods to the point that DB called me a "prepper." Um...not even close. But getting there. The shelves are stocked with strawberry margarita jam, peach jam, peaches, applesauce (reg. & spiced), apple butter, dill relish, daikon, salsa verde, and my newest adventure, beets.

I've never played with beets before. Sure, my grandmother would try to get me to eat store bought commercially canned beets and I would have none of it. But after asking a friend about beets and pickling them, I decided to give it a go. Picking up a bunch from the farmer's market on Saturday, I got started on my adventure...this morning. What? It's Labor Day weekend. I spent most of my time away from home with family...swimming....and going to RenFairs....

So, beets. When I read that beets would stain whatever it could leak it's juices onto pink, I didn't think it would be that bad...I think I should just cut my nails now before I go to work instead of having my boss ask why my fingers are bright pink. Best to avoid that situation if possible. And when I removed the jars from the water bath, one decided he didn't like being upright and for a second there I thought all hope was lost as juice dribbled out. But the seal took, I just made sure to label that one as the "tipper" so it gets eaten first. As far as I know all the juice is cleaned up and the sink doesn't even look that bad. The interesting part is going to be trying these home canned beets.

Final Thoughts

Don't forget that it's not too late to start sowing for the fall harvest. Great ones to think about are carrots, Swiss Chard, Spinach and other short term, cool crop varietals. Right about now the pumpkin vines should start to die back and the fruit themselves begin to finish off their color. Our 'Sugar Pies' are almost ready for harvest!! Lastly, I leave you with the double headed sunflower. Yes, double. The individual heads grew together to form this:

A double headed sunflower.

We Got Worms!

We've been really enjoying the fact that our local farmer's market has been pushing towards Green Living. This included a fair attached to last week's market that focused on sustainable practices and organic foods. Demos/discussions were held every hour, which included one on vermicomposting. Now, we've been composting for a few years, but vermicomposting. Our first thought: what the hell is it?

Scouring the web we came up with this: worms.

Ok...but how does it work? The lovely Kate Jerome, our demo host, explained that the worms work in the same way as composting.[1] Instead of just breaking down the food and paper waste, they act like mini garbage disposals. Even better? The bin - either bought or made - can stay in the kitchen year round. Begin the experiment!

Preparing the bins

Layering the material

We went out to the local Big Lots! and picked up two plastic bins. Of course, with the limited selection we had to make do with clear bins. Problem is, the worms are night crawlers, but thank goodness we keep a steady stock of black spray paint. A few coats later and some fun with a hand drill and our bin is ready for assembly.

There are different methods for building a worm bin.[2] However, we decided to keep it simple by drilling a series of holes on the bottom of the first bin that way the worm castings can drain into the bottom bin. There should be something to create a gap though to ensure proper airflow and give depth to the reservoir. It's not in the photos but we have PVC that we used when we created our self-watering containers to aid with aeration. You can use plant saucers, bricks, whatever else you can think of to provide stability and support.

Our worms

Next we added a bed of shredded paper and kitchen waste. Ms. Jerome was kind enough to give those of us who showed up to the demo a cup of her extra red wigglers as long as we pledged not to use them as bait. Well Ms. Jerome, they're not bait!

Now, you're probably asking yourself "Why use worms? What's the point?" Damn fine question.

When it comes to organic material, we're not at the top of the food chain. Something that is barely a 1/2" wide and 3" long provides a vital service to soil amendment. In fact, most artificial soil supplements/fertilizers kill off helpful microbes and earthworms creating a cyclic dependency on petrol based products. Microbes are nature's way of providing equilibrium through the addition of vital nutrients to the soil.[3] This aids in not only the addition of nitrogen (readily available as a gas but not in a plant soluble form), phosphate, and potassium – the N, P, K that you see on most fertilizer packages – but also iron, zinc, calcium, magnesium, and carbon.[4]

Secondly, between 30-70% of household waste is organic material that can easily be composted. Instead, it is included in overflowing dumpsites as it goes out with the regular trash. Think about what you’re throwing away.

I don't know about you but I'm damn excited to begin this new project!

But just because we have this going for us doesn't mean we can neglect everything else around the house. Nope! The pumpkins are doing fabulous now that the blooms are getting pollinated and we should have six good Sugar Pies by the end of the season. The butternut squash is doing equally as well. Also, we have three baby eggplant which I'm sure DB is counting the days until those become Spicy Eggplant Peanut Soup...The tomatoes are doing too well and I've resorted to using bricks at the base of the cages to keep them upright since we live in a wind tunnel. Other than that, I leave you with my final thoughts which is just a picture, enjoy!

Sputnik lounging

[1] Kate Jerome, “Vermicomposting,” Demonstration at Getting Green by the Lake July 27, 2013.

[2] University of Nebraska – Lincoln, “Vermicomposting: Composting with Worms,” http://lancaster.unl.edu/pest/resources/vermicompost107.shtml (accessed August 1, 2013)

[3] North Carolina State University, “Vermicomposting,” https://www.bae.ncsu.edu/topic/vermicomposting/ (accessed August 1, 2013)

[4] Clell Tompkins, “Worm Composting 101,” http://wilsoncountymg.files.wordpress.com/2013/06/worm_farming_101_by_clell_tompkins.pdf (accessed August 1, 2013).