Square foot garden - preparing a bed

The best thing about the square foot gardening method is that you don't have to dig up the ground, rip up sod and rototill every year. You just put the raised bed on top of whatever soil you've got. I'm not a bit lazy, but if there's a way to garden without a lot of sweat and hard manual labor, count me in!

I ran a string from the exterior wall of the house down through where the garden will be. This way, I can square up the raised beds with the house. The perennial garden isn't parallel or perpendicular to the house. It doesn't look bad, but I would prefer that the vegetable garden lines up with the walls of the house.

 

I'd gone back and forth on whether or not to put chicken wire down under the beds to keep critters from digging up into the beds and eating the plants from the bottom up.  I decided that I wouldn't regret taking the extra precaution.  Jasper's a good barn cat, but I don't want him to feel guilty for not catching some mole that ate my asparagus!

 

Chicken wire is easy to work with, but please wear gloves and be careful!  The ends of the wire are very sharp! It's easier to manage if you fold the sharp cut ends under.

 

I rolled it out next to the bed, then used wire cutters to snip it to the length I needed. I didn't measure....just eye-balled it.

 

 

 

 

I laid out the wire in the bed and used landscape staples to temporarily anchor it down. My original plan was to mow the grass here before putting all this in. However, my lawn tractor isn't here yet. It should have been here five days ago, but it's not so I forged ahead anyway. The chicken wire flattened all that tall grass nicely.

 

 

The next step was to put down a layer of heavy-duty landscape fabric. Again, I didn't measure it...just unrolled it and eye-balled the right length.

 







I used the landscape staples to hold it all down. The ground was so rock-hard that I had to pound the staples in with a hammer. I sure am glad I didn't have to dig into that stuff for a garden! I'd have given up after 10 minutes!

These are the staples I used.

 

It's a little hard to see in the photo below, but there are staples along the inside top edge.

 

 

While the landscape fabric is enough to keep the grass from growing through the bed, I happen to have about 20 tons of packing paper and cardboard boxes laying around. I put some of each down on top of the landscape fabric. In the short term, it'll help kill the grass under the beds. Over time, it'll decompose and add some nitrogen to the soil.

 

I put the paper down....

 

 

...then the cardboard.

 

 

The two 4' x 10' beds are ready for the filler. 

 



 

 

Today, I put in about an hour of work on this. It's not a lot of time, but remember once the beds are set up and filled, you don't need to do it ever again. It's a one-time chore. And a whole lot easier than digging!

 

In the next post, I'll go into detail about the special soilless mix that's used in Square Foot Gardening. And tell you the story of why I moved a bunch of the soilless mix from New Mexico to Colorado. Yes, I moved dirt 400 miles. 

 



 



 

 

 







 

 

 



 

 

Making Cooked Strawberry Jam

It's very easy to make homemade jams. Today, I'll show you how to make fresh strawberry jam and then use a water bath to can it.

Water bath canning is the safe method for canning high acid foods such as most fruits, jams and jellies and tomatoes.  If you want to can anything else (vegetables or meat for example) you MUST use the pressure canning method. Some people may try to tell you there are other safe methods for canning vegetables and meat. Don't listen to them. You risk very serious food poisoning if you do. Please take a little time to learn about safe canning methods before you dive into it.

All of that being said, making jam and then canning it for shelf-safe storage is very simple. If you've never canned anything before, this is a very nice place to start.

You'll need the following ingredients:

A box of powdered pectin
2 quarts of fruit
7 cups of white sugar

The pectin...I had Sure-jell on hand, but any other brand is fine. My box is a little bashed up from being thrown into a moving box.

 

What is pectin? It's a naturally occuring substance found in fruits. When heated with sugar, it created a thickening agent. It's what makes jelly and jam thick. As far as I know, it does not contain any animal products so it's suitable for vegetarians/vegans.

 

I have 3 pounds of fresh strawberries.

 

 

 

Seven cups of white sugar

 

 

For this recipe, do not use a sugar substitute or reduce the sugar amount. You need exactly seven cups of white sugar.

 

There are speciality recipes for low sugar jam or jam using sugar substitutes. You need a specific type of pectin for those recipes.

 

You also need eight half pint size canning jars and matching lids and bands. Unfortunately, most of my canning supplies are still in moving boxes. I only had seven half pint jars available.

 

Here are the lids and bands. The bands are reusable. The lids are not. If you try to reuse the flat lids, it's very likely that your jars will  not seal. The flat lids are one-time-use only.

 

 

 

Wash your jars, even if brand new, in hot soapy water and rinse them well. You can run them through the sanitizer cycle of a dishwasher.  I take the additional step of boiling the jars in water for a few minutes after I've washed them.

 

The water bath canner is perfect for this. Fill your canner with enough water to cover the jars by about two inches. Place a canning rack in the bottom of the canner. Do not place jars directly on the bottom of a canning pot. Most canners will come with a rack.

 

Stand your empty jars up in the canner and let them fill up with the water.

 

 

Put the canner lid on loosely and fire up the heat.  Once it comes to a full boil, I let the jars sanitize in the boiling water for about 3 minutes. Remove the hot jars, drain out the water back into the canning pot, then place the jars upright on a towel. If you place the jars directly on a counter top, they may crack. 

 

Heat a few cups of water to boiling on the stove or in your microwave. Place the flat canning lids in a heatproof pot or bowl. Dump the boiling water over them and let them sit in the water until you're ready to use them.

 

Wash and hull the strawberries. You need to smash them up a bit, too. A potato masher works well. So does a food processor. I use a submersible blender.  Don't puree the strawberries, though. You want nice bits of fruit in your jam.

 

 

Measure five cups of the smashed berries into a large (6- or 8-quart) saucepot.  Stir the pectin into the fruit.

 

While stirring constantly, bring this mixture to a full, rolling boil over high heat. A rolling boil is one that does not stop bubbling when you stir it.

 

 

 

Quickly, stir in the seven cups of sugar. While continuing to stir, return the mixture to a full rolling boil again and boil EXACTLY one minute.

 

Remove from heat. Then skim off the foam that is floating on the top. I happened to forget to skim off the foam. It doesn't hurt the taste of the jam to leave the foam, but in the finished jars, there's an obvious layer of light colored foam on top. It affects the visual appearance only. You won't win a ribbon at the fair with foamy jam!

 

Working quickly, ladle the jam into the waiting jars. You'll find that a canning funnel makes this step a lot easier.  In this photo, you can see the lighter layer of foam on the top. That's the stuff I should have skimmed off before filling the jars.

 

If you have more jam than what fits into your jars, just ladle the excess into a plastic container and put it in the refrigerator. It'll store there for several weeks, although it's so yummy I doubt it will last that long.

 

 

 

Use a damp cloth or paper towel to wipe the jar rims and threads clean.  If there is jam dripped on the rim or threads, the jar may not seal in the canning process.

 

Place a flat lid on top of each filled jar. Then screw the bands on tightly. Place the filled jars back in the water bath canner. Be sure there is enough water in the canning pot to cover the jars by about two inches.  Add more hot water if necessary.

 

Put the lid on the canner then bring to a gentle boil. The amount of time you leave the jars in the boiling water to process depends on the altitude where you live.

 

0 - 1,000 ft. above sea level, process for ten minutes.

 

1, 001 - 3,000 ft. above sea level - fifteen minutes

 

3,001 - 6,000 ft. above sea level - twenty minutes

 

6,001 - 8,000 ft. above sea level - twenty-five minutes

 

8,001 - 10,000 ft. above sea level - thirty minutes

  

I live at about 6,800 feet above sea level, so I processed my jars for twenty-five minutes.

 

When they are finsihed processing, carefully remove the hot jars.  A jar lifter is a handy tool to have for this.

 

 

Jar lifters and canning funnels are usually sold together in a package of canning tools. You can find them online or in some larger grocery or department stores.

 

Place the hot jars upright on a towel to cool. Once the jars are out of the canner, you'll hear them ping or pop as the flat lids seal tightly.

 

 

Once the jars are completely cooled, test to see if they all have sealed properly. Gently press down on the center of each flat lid, if the lid springs back, it's not sealed and you must refrigerate that jar.

 

Let the jars stand at room temperature for twenty-four hours in order for the jam to completely thicken and set up.  After that, you can store the jars in your pantry for as long as a year. Once opened, use it within three weeks.

 

I will tell you that I have jars of jam in the pantry that are more than a year old and they are still safe to eat. They have not lost their taste either.

 

My strawberry jam turned out to be the perfect mix of sweet and tart. I've been stirring it into my plain Greek yogurt for breakfast every morning. 

 

Homemade jams and jellies make wonderful gifts. I love giving jars to my family and friends at Christmas. I get very creative with flavors and have done Black Forest, Tropical Sunrise, and Peach Almond, just to name a few. VERY IMPORTANT - If you add something other than fruit to your jam (such as nuts) you will need to use the pressure canning processing method.

 

Here are a few links to online sites with jam and jelly recipes just to get you started. The local library is also a good source for excellent cookbooks with recipes. Have fun and enjoy!

 

All Recipes list of jam and jelly recipes

 

Website with over 100 recipes for jam, jelly and preserves

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





 

 



 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 







Food Storage Friday - FoodSaver

This is a FoodSaver vacuum sealer. You need one of these!

I hope this post doesn't sound like some bad TV infomercial!

I bought the FoodSaver when I decided to get serious about storing up some extra food in case of an emergency.  Since the machine vacuums all the air out of the bag, the food doesn't get freezer burn.  Everything lasts about twice as long in the freezer than when I was using ziplock bags.

When I find a sale on meat, I can buy extra and stockpile it.

I also save money by buying meat that the supermarket has marked down because it's near the "use by" date.

This is what I picked up at the store yesterday. All of the "use by" dates were for either the next day or the day after that. Nothing was expired. The discount was about 30% off full price.

I cut that huge pork loin into 3 3-lb roasts, then packaged it all up in the FoodSaver bags.

 

 FoodSaver has all sorts of neat canisters and bags for their system. I got some FreshSteam bags that I'm going to try out next time I freeze some vegetables. The bags can go right into the microwave to steam your veggies.

 

Although I've not tried it, you can use the FoodSaver bags to seal up non-food items, too. It'll keep things like matches and toilet paper dry for your next camping trip.

 

 

 

 

 

 





Barn Cat

As I mentioned in an earlier post, the previous homeowners put out corn and sunflower seeds to attract wildlife.  They also encouraged a family of ground squirrels to build an underground complex right under the dining room window.

In this photo, you can see not only the family of deer hanging out where the feeders used to be, but in the lower right you can see one of the mounds of dirt from a ground squirrel burrow.



I tried to be nice about it and use "humane" methods to encourage the squirrels to move away.  I bought a couple of rubber snakes and also scattered used kitty litter from my indoor cats. 

 

It didn't phase the critters one bit. They just keep on digging and expanding their burrow. Do you think they're smart enough to know that cobras aren't a local species?

 

 

 

I don't want to poison them, since there's the risk of a neighborhood dog eating a poison-laden rodent.

 

Enter Jasper, barn cat extraordinaire (at least I hope he's extraordinary!)



 

I got Jasper from the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region. He was in their Barn Cat program. They developed that program as a way to find homes for cats who are, for various reasons, not suitable as pets. Before this program came about, these cats would have been euthanized since they were considered "not adoptable".

Jasper was in the Barn Cat program because his former owner hadn't neutered him. He surrendered Jasper to the Humane Society because the cat was spraying all over the house. Gosh...an intact male cat was spraying...go figure! Jasper was neutered at the Humane Society, but he will always have the habit of spraying.

When I brought Jasper home, he was very shy and immediately found a spot in the barn to hide in. Now that he's been here for two weeks, he's come out of his shell.  Happily, he's very friendly and lovable considering he was a "tom" cat until a month ago.

 

 

I've kept Jasper confined in the barn these past two weeks so that he learns to identify this as his new territory. The squirrels used to run wild through the barn. Not any more! I haven't seen evidence that Jasper has actually killed one, so apparently his presence alone is enough to convince the squirrels to go elsewhere.

 

Jasper's been protected against fleas and ticks as well as worms. No telling what he'll be exposed to in his duties as exterminator.  He can escape any coyotes through a small cat door in the hay room of the barn. And he has food, water and a "den" in the barn, too.

How do you control the rodent population around your place? Do you use cats or dogs? Traps? Poisons? Why did you choose a particular method?