Jayne's Urban Paradise

[JayneR13]

Typically plugs are used for growing outdoors in logs. A table top farm is basically a sawdust block. I used to make those but my contamination rate was so high, it’s cheaper to just buy a block when I want one! Mushroom mycelia are horribly weak when faced with more aggressive fungi, such as molds. Molds killed my attempts at monotub growing as well. There’s nothing worse than making the blocks, sterilizing in the canner for three hours, inoculating the block with my carefully made liquid culture inside of my still air box, then watching the entire thing mold. Arrgghhh!


BTW, I love my new stove! I haven’t tried the simmer burner yet but the quick boil burner rocks! I’m not sure what I’m going to do with the middle burner but most stoves had them so I was a bit stuck. Just having the burner is better than the burner with the griddle on top! I haven’t eaten pancakes in years so I don’t need an installed griddle. We’ll see about the burner. Maybe for canning.

[MissS]

I gave my daughter a few lion's mane kits. They have always worked out very well for her. She had fun growing them.

[JayneR13]

I gave my daughter a few lion's mane kits. They have always worked out very well for her. She had fun growing them.

Not only are they fun and easy to grow, the amount of tincture I can make from one $30 kit comes out to about $3k in commercially-made tincture! And that's buying the kit on sale so the $30 includes shipping. Making my own is MUCH cheaper! And it gives me something to do over winter. Busy hands are happy hands!

Not looking forward to Thursday's pantry. Wind chills are supposed to be -15 to -25 in the morning. What fun! I'll be outside to help unload the truck, then back in my cubby with the computer, but it still gets cold in there! Ugh.

[GoDawgs]

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! SO glad I live down here. LOL!

[JayneR13]

It's another day in Ice Paradise! Yesterday was not only -25F with the wind chill, it was distribution day at the pantry! It was a good day to be a computer nerd but really, when it's that cold outside, it's cold EVERYWHERE. I'm just grateful the pantry isn't far from my house! Today is warmer but it's still a bit nippy for my liking.

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Indoor gardening is chugging along. Lettuce is growing quite quickly. It's also time to trim the mustard and cilantro. Salad, probably.

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This is Pendulina, an interesting tomato with a nice, sweet taste. It's productive but again, these take forever to ripen so I don't get enough at once to do much with. I'm leaving the last two that are ripening for seed, then I'll replant the Aerogarden. The Minibel is pretty much done and I have no idea what happened to Venus. Shaded out by Pendulina, I think.

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The mushroom block is fruiting very nicely, although I have to be careful to mist more than I've been. Pink mycelia is normal and good. Yellowing mycelia means dry and possible mushroom abort. The heat mat does dry things out but in this weather, things would die without it.

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And yeah, sue me! All of these are disease-resistant varieties and the cucumbers are for the pantry garden. I know that resistant doesn't mean immune but it'll be interesting to see how far it goes. If anyone wants to trade for that basil, let me know.

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I've been eyeing up a Cape Cod weeder for quite some time! Many onion sets fell to my sickle weeder at the pantry garden last year, so I need a tool that does smaller spaces. I'm planning to intercrop onion sets with the tomatoes this year. That and a new layer of mulch should cut down the weeding somewhat. Going through a huge field of stubborn dandelions with the sickle resulted in too many Oopsies LOL


https://www.redpigtools.com/Cape-Cod-We ... _1191.html


Happy Friday the 13th! I'm enjoying my new furnace and the financing is pretty much in place to get the garage rebuilt in spring. I'm going out for a nice Christmas supper with the ham club later; it'll be good to see them. I haven't been doing the business meeting for several months, for a few reasons. So it'll be good to re-connect with them. Happy gardening!

[GoDawgs]

@JayneR13, how tall did your Pendulina get? This summer I tried one outside in a pot on the pallet row with the tomatoes and it didn't make it. Is it a weeping form? Just wondering as that's what kind of picture the name forms in my head.

[JayneR13]

@GoDawgs Not very tall. Most of it is still under the lights, which go about 2' up max. And it's an upright form. The fruits hang like little Japanese lanterns.

[JayneR13]

My new Cape Cod weeder came yesterday! It's slightly different from my expectation, but it's so hard to judge things by pictures. It seems quite similar to my Japanese najiri kama weeding sickle. Lengthwise, the NK (right) is a bit shorter and the handle and shank are shaped differently. I have other Red Pig tools with their characteristic handle, so I know both fit into my hand very well.

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The heads are about the same length, thought the NK (right) is wider. The CC weeder is sharp on both sides and a bit thinner, more like a stirrup hoe that cuts both ways. Either one can be used in tight spaces and both have nice points for digging. It'll be interesting to compare both in actual use and see if I prefer one over the other. Either way, there's no such thing as an unnecessary tool! At least not in the quality department.

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Happy gardening!

[GoDawgs]

Very nice! Both will probably do a good job for you. But i imagine that over time each will become slightly more "specialized" in your use of it. One year I was gifted three different hand weeders, each very different from each other. Two are used for very different purposes and one hardly gets used at all. I'll have to take a pic and see if anyone has a good use I hadn't thought of for the neglected one.

[worth1]

I thought they were golf clubs.

[JayneR13]

My mushroom tincture project is moving along. While these might have gotten a little bigger, they were also turning yellow/brown, which is a sign of drying out and possibly aborting. So I took while the taking was good.

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Solidly between 1/2 and 3/4 pounds, US measure. Not bad.

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Vodka is for extracting, not for drinking. I've used Everclear to good effect but wanted to give flavored vodka a try. Everclear tastes a bit harsh, like the strange flavor I have in my mouth after pumping gas. If you try this at home, you'll want your vodka as high proof as possible.

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Both the fresh stuff and 1/2 of the dried stuff is in alcohol. I tip them whenever I walk by. This is the part of the process that takes the longest, at least 30 days. 45-60 isn't the worst idea. The water bath part takes overnight, and given the amount of alcohol I'll likely have to do it in batches. My slow cooker is 1.5 quarts and the general recipe is 3 parts water to 1 part alcohol.

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The other side of the block is set up to fruit! If it produces as the first side did, I'll likely have enough tincture for the next five years! Well worth the $30 investment.

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We're going to have a white Christmas! 4-7 inches of snow is scheduled starting tomorrow night. At least it's not supposed to start until after the food pantry closes! And it's going to be 30F warmer than it was last week, so that's nice. Merry Christmas everyone!