gardening surprise, supporting our habits

I received an email from Patrick(thank you Patrick) asking me about something on my profile. I grow my own coffee and tobacco. 2 bad habits I have, one I refuse to live without and the other I just don't want to quit. I looked thru my photo albums and don't have a single picture of either plant growing, hmmm. So, come spring I'll remedy that.

Coffee is an interesting subject! Lots of different strains of coffee you can grow, depending on your tastes. Myself, I prefer the Arabica bean for it's low acid and naturally smoother drinkability. Some types of Arabica plant prefer to be partially shaded, need extra care and attention but there's one or 2 strains out there that grow like weeds. A simple general search on coffee beans will help each person decide what type of plant they want to grow. The seed germination takes a bit longer than say a tomato seed, but once it gets going, you're in business! I started growing my own coffee a few years ago when the price of commercial coffee went way up and stayed up for a while. it's dropped back down somewhat now so stock piling a few cans of coffee while your plants get going is still affordable. It is a good idea to read up just a little on growing coffee before you start, all the help you can get.

Once you get your "cherries", there's a few decent and inexpensive ways to roast them too. You don't have to have an expensive electric roasting machine to get a good cup of coffee. I do mine in the oven. The roasted beans can be ground for brewing in just about anything, even a household blender. The best thing to use tho, is the old fashioned hand crank burr grinder. My preferred choice anyway.

I drink my coffee black but hubby likes sugar in his. Since I am allergic to bees, we don't have a supply of honey here so I grow Stevia. It helps but I don't think he considers it a good enough sugar replacement so we do have a stockpile of white sugar for his coffee.

Now for my other bad habit, tobacco! I've tried to quit just a couple times(thanks kids and the public school system) but I'm just not a quitter. I don't want to quit, I like my morning coffee and smoke. Tobacco is easy to grow, it will grow in just about any soil. The seed takes a little time to germinate but once it goes, you're in business! Think of the money you'd save to prep in other areas if you grew your own. You'll need a bit of space as the plants get big and you'll need somewhere to dry your plants. So, I suggest you read a bit on growing tobacco to become more familiar with the process as I cut corners here, throw up a drying shed at the last minute type thing and everyone will want to do what will work for them.

"Food for thought", if you smoke and drink coffee, your own supply isn't a bad idea!

Seed Saving thoughts

Each day that passes, I find myself thinking more and more about my food safety and the availability of what I need to feed myself and my family. Yesterday, once again I spent 2 hours reviewing the seeds I've saved. A few days ago, I realized I didn't have enough plants producing fresh food in my containers to provide a decent bounty for my table. I started some seedlings. Of course the cucumbers sprouted in 2 days like they always do, the seeds are pretty fresh. The Romas I've been planting are from 2005, the container tomatoes are from 2004 and the peppers are from 2006. Guess I should save fresh.
These little babies pictured here are from 1999! Basil is pretty easy to grow and I've had the same plants going for at least 4 years now. I store my seeds in plastic ziploc bags in coffee cans in the kitchen cabinet. It's obviously working out well because there they are, sprouted in just 6 days. Somewhere along the way, several years ago, I read in a book that when you save seeds, the key to the viability and longevity of the seed is air, moisture and light. Eliminate them and your seeds are good for a long time. I'm not going to suggest that you save and seeds for 10 years like I did, fresh is the better choice for any planting. I guess I haven't allowed my basil to go to seed all these years! Time for some fresh basil seed, guess I can sacrifice one plant.

Seed saving isn't difficult, you simply need to allow a couple fruits or veges on a plant to hit full maturity. You want the amount of good seeds inside to be at the maximum. I simply collect the seeds, wash them in luke warm water if they have plant matter on them, dry them on a paper towel and store them with no air, moisture or sunlight. Good insurance for the future of government controlled food supplies and GMO seeds.

Memories of days gone by

I often miss living in Chicago simply for the food. I grew up in an Italian/Greek/Irish/Bohemian community and did we ever eat! My Gramps had a double lot for his home and the one whole lot was a great big garden. Gramps used to give me a quarter for every rabbit I shot with the pellet gun. I'd go to the corner market and buy ice cream with the money. Grandma cooked those rabbits with gravy and dumplings my brother fondly called "sinkers". Bohemian flour and egg dumplings, they go great with roasted pork loin.

Those foods I can easily duplicate on the farm. I raise the rabbits and the occasional hog. That's not what I've been craving tho. I have the urge to have a big fat greasy Gyros, true Greek style comfort food with the cucumber sauce and onions. One can simply not find something like that in southern Illinois. So, I hunted down a lamb so I could try to duplicate those fond memories of years gone by....

Alas, my search ends at my Amish neighbors' place. He has a couple sheep on his place. He doesn't eat them, he shears them and uses the sheep as lawn mowers! I bartered him out of a lamb and he delivered it to me this morning. The man looked around my farm and said to me "You don't need a lawn trimmer, why do you want a lamb?" Needless to say, he stuck around for the dispatch of the lamb, he did not believe I was really going to eat it. I hope I did as gentle a job as my Scottish Grandmother did. Anywho, I mixed up my ground lamb with a little deer meat and some fresh herbs I grow in containers in my windows. I just pulled the steaming pan of my concoction out of the oven and sliced myself some. Not quite Petes Gyros on Roosevelt in Cicero, but close enough! I even managed to whip some cucumber sauce up from fresh sour cream I made yesterday. Now I need to learn to make pita bread.....


Ah, the fond memories of childhood and the dreams of eating all those wonderful things again on the farm........


Oh, I almost forgot, the recipes for both the meat and the Gryos cucumber sauce came from Allrecipies.com, it's a great source for good recipes.

Snow day

This little gem was grown on my window sill in a miner bit bucket. About a half gallon size bucket, soil from the compost pile. Should be mighty tasty with the fresh made sour cream! It's snowing here today and my attempts to pen the chickens up in the coop were in vain. So, they are running around with the snow flying, free ranging in the fence row, again because I was too slow this morning. I swear, as big as Australorps are, I would have never guessed they could fly out of a 6' fence, but they do. I need to finish the roof! The bunnies have a new tarp up on the open side of their shed, I hope to have kits born in the next week. The horses are all bedded up in the barn for the night and all that's left is putting some round bales out and helping the neighbor milk the cows. I haven't even started my first loaf of bread today, shame on me but it's such a dreary day, everything seems like slow motion. Plenty of stuff to warm up to eat and a few slices of bread from yesterday will have to do for now.

I've been designing some new container growing shelves for the windows but they're on hold until next week due to lack of a lumber fund. Seems like the odds and ends bills keep sneaking up on me. Christmas is right around the corner and I've been sneaking in baking a few cakes and cookies here and there.

I did start a few more seeds for the container garden, the thought of having to spend money on something I can grow kills me. They won't be even started well by Christmas, but they should be producing long before the last frost so it's worth it. I also started a couple new herb seeds I hadn't had access to before. Hope they sprout!