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!

[JayneR13]

Here I sit, thinking I was going to be helping sort food at the pantry today. So I show up, and no one's there! As it turns out, PA had the time right but the date wrong. This particular project is next week. So I walked over to the garden and re-covered the garlic. The winds had uncovered most of it, and that won't do. Now it's all better, at least for now! Bonus: I spotted a nice garden bench & table in the shed when I grabbed the rake. I was going to suggest this to PA, thinking that people might enjoy sitting in the peace of the garden. I too would like a spot to take a break! PA is ahead of me

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On the home front, I'm getting a second flush of the lion's mane mushroom. This is good! It means I'll have fresh stuff in addition to dried for the water extraction phase.

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And two of the hydroponics units have been replanted. I caught Miss Yin browsing in the parsley, mustard mizuna, and alocasia, none of which are good for her. I've planted some cat grass (in a pot) since she turned her nose up at the catnip. The large lettuce in back was being shaded out by the mizuna anyway.

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I had MMMM seed from 2020 & 2022, so I planted all six slots in the Aerogarden thinking I might get half. I've got four and the other two just might germinate. Go figure but count me grateful! The germinated varieties are Orange Hat, Pinnocchio orange, dwarf purple heart, and big dwarf.

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It's actually pretty nice outside, at least for the end of December! Time to get my tax and SS stuff together. Sigh. Gardening is more fun! Happy gardening everyone!

[MissS]

What a great Christmas surprise to find a bench plus a table for the garden. I'm sure that they will get good use too.

[JayneR13]

I think so too! I'm also going to suggest the purchase/donation of some decorative flower pots. There are 3-4 smaller pots, in the 15-20" size, that could be used to plant flowers. Good for the pollinators, good for the garden! It'll be lovely.

[JayneR13]

This is the story about gardening lessons learned the hard way. I'm sure we've all done that and been there! We can share war stories LOL.

As people reading this thread know, I also grow carnivorous plants. Venus flytraps, sundews, pitcher plants, that kind of thing. There's one in particular that's a challenge to grow, and who could resist a challenge? Especially in the face of a plant that smells like honey with lovely yellow flowers. The plant in question is Drosophyllum lusitanicum, the dewy pine or Portugese sundew. If you're curious, there's a grow guide here: https://carnivorousplants.org/grow/guides/Drosophyllum

I've been working on these for a few years. I had one that I'd grown from seed a few years back. I was trimming dead leaves one day and accidentally decapitated the poor thing. Dewy pines are horribly sensitive to root disturbance of any kind and if decapitation doesn't qualify as a root disturbance, I don't know what would! So I bought some seeds, which I germinated in a pot that was very pretty but wasn't suited for growing plants of any kind. Scratch about 20 seedlings. I bought a live plant and put it into a Slack pot, which is basically one pot inside of another, both filled with growing medium. The purpose is drainage. I knew my outer pot didn't drain well but dewy pines aren't watered much, and I thought the plant would transpire enough to keep the roots healthy. Dewy pines are also prone to root rot. And it worked, at least for awhile. I had a plant to be proud of! It was a ravenous little bugger too, taking many a house fly.

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So a few weeks ago I noticed that the leaves weren't dewy and the plant was dying back. Bummer! Since transplanting is anathema, I tried digging some soil out without disturbing the roots so things would dry out. It took a couple of years, but the soil had gotten pretty wet. Drosophyllum does not like wet feet. This happened very, very quickly. I don't have pictures of the entire process but I think you'll all get the idea.

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Yes, my poor baby died. There was nothing I can do but try again. These, unlike other carnivores, can be grown in ceramic pots as long as the pot is fully glazed. So I'll slack pot it once again. What's done with these, since they hate being transplanted, is to put the jiffy pot they arrive in, into a larger forever home pot. My poor baby was without heat for two days while in transit, without light for five, but is looking much greener this morning on a heat mat under grow lights. If at first we don't succeed, right? My quest continues.

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[JayneR13]

In other news, my hydroponics units are thriving. A couple of spots didn't germinate so I replanted them, and now have lettuce for sammies every couple of days.

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Tomatoes are growing well, except for the one on the far right whose cotyledon leaves got stuck on the wrong side of the tape. It still looks green however, so I'm letting it grow to see if it grows new leaves.

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And the mushroom tincture is just about ready for the water extraction process! The block was trying to fruit again, but it was just too dry for things to progress. Houses here in winter get very, very dry, which is why we use humidifiers and spray mushroom blocks many times daily. The block was right by the humidifier, to no avail. I have enough though. I should have at least 3-4 quart jars of tincture.

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We're supposed to get more snow today, likely enough to break out the snow blower for. I'm taking more bids on getting my garage rebuilt, having just signed the loan papers. Life goes on. Happy gardening!

[bower]

That Lion's Mane looks amazing - I've never tried it (not a local mushroom) but it reminds me of my favorite teeth mushrooms.

I've grown Reishi from a kit and made tincture, but just a simple process in ordinary 40% alcohol - we don't get the 190 proof here without a special license. I didn't grind them up (too tough!) but I did do a second round of extraction. Definitely more polysaccharides in the second round (sweet!) but I really love the taste anyway, and excellent with coffee.
I have a little Chaga tincture made by a friend, that was foraged locally. Chaga-coffee, makes a great boost too.

I should get myself a new Reishi kit, time to do that again. Thanks for reminding me!

[JayneR13]

I played around with growing mushrooms for two years and never really could get into the taste! So now the Martha tent is extra shelving and the monotub works well for mass seed germination. Getting the fungi into culture was easy. Bag colonization and fruiting were a bit more challenging, with mold contamination at the top of the list! So yeah, I buy kits when I want a particular mushroom for tincture. Lion's mane (and its cousins) have many neuroprotective properties. An old nut like me needs all of the help she can get!

I'm moving the alcohol-soaked product through the water extraction process now and should end up with 3-4 quarts of tincture easily. Thankfully, using alcohol for extraction yields a tincture that's shelf-stable for years! And lots, lots cheaper than buying it retail!

[JayneR13]

And the result is: 1 gallon and 1 quart of finished tincture! Remember: I added about 1 pound of dried mushroom that was sitting uselessly in my cupboard for over one year, so I started with 1.67 pounds US measure of mushroom. It's interesting that using the dried shroom made the tincture so much darker, but there it is. 96 fluid ounces of tincture retail @ 2 ounces per bottle @ $35 per bottle = $1680 worth of tincture retail! All I paid total was about $60 + my time.

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[bower]

I make some tinctures every year, one kind or another but mostly flowers, a few root and leaf types, occasional mushroom. Flowers and roots and mushroom keep well for years - the leaf types are more perishable in some cases.
I haven't had to take an antibiotic for more than 20 years, so they are not too shabby as a first aid.
Mostly delicious as well.
I admit I am prejudiced against anything that doesn't taste good.