Paisley Ridge

2010-04-09T15:21:00.002-04:00

Here it is gardening season again. I’ve been so bogged down with the weather that I’ve not been able to do anything other than look out the window and see nothing but snow. Finally I have dirt to stick my fingers in, plants and seeds that I can plant; life feels like its worth living again.
Thanks to craig the blog hasn’t gone to pot. I’m sorry I just haven’t had anything to say but now that its spring I feel renewed. Here is what I’ve been doing this past month. We’ve planted three rows of yellow potatoes; yellow fin and butterball. Craig seems to think they are best. I’ve planted spinach, lettuce, radishes, carrots, rutabagas, peas, and a row of Jerusalem artichokes. I’ve read that the artichokes taste like water chestnuts. We shall see. We have tomato seedlings in the greenhouse and the strawberries I built the frame for last year are blooming. Everything seems to be coming together for a good gardening season. Oh yes, craig is in the process of building a chicken coop and run. We plan on having orpingtons which is a lesser known type of chicken. There’s nothing better than fresh yard eggs. Craig will send photos of the project as it progresses. My schedule is starting to get full. I go back to work at mid-town market and gardening center next week. I will do what I can to keep you up to date as to what is happening in the garden and at the garden center. Hope to see you there. Happy gardening.

2010-03-15T14:27:00.002-04:00

i realized the finished goat hadn't made its appearance so here it is.
its locust and the wood is very yellow. hardest wood i ever carved, including many other pieces of locust, except a piece of iron wood i did one time that badly dulled my tools.
lane has planted rutabagas last week, the turnips are still good after their time under the snow, the leeks, onions and garlic are find. there are also various greens scattered thru the beds.
lane will be busy this spring with three part time jobs and the garden so it will be interesing.

2010-03-02T15:56:00.002-05:00

just when it looked like it had left its back. this winter's snow has made up for the last ten years and amounted to more, i suspect.

2010-01-31T10:39:00.002-05:00

snow again. perhaps you've heard.
just got the old melted and now here's more slipping and sliding.
so it goes. more carving and reading gets done.
the greens and turnips had survived the last round, so we will see if they do so this time.
nothing else happening as its only what we can do inside in such conditions. i remember a hundred years ago, it was out with the sleds. no more.

2010-01-29T14:03:00.001-05:00

this from my sister, the doctor; Here's something you can post from me. Recently a patient was telling me of his problems in relationships and how his most recent girlfriend told him he had a lot of emotional baggage. He said he didn't realize that. i told him the following: we all take baggage with us through life. The question is whether you have a carry-on or a checked bag. The more baggage you take, the more you pay, so pack light.

2010-01-24T12:27:00.001-05:00

lane is reading "buffalo bird woman's garden" about a hidatsa indian woman and how she went about gardening, including what she grew, how she stored it and what she cooked from it. very interesting. we have had a winter this year after many years of a brown summer. the turnips and several varities of greens still live and will see the inside of our kitchen.
here is the first photo of that locust in the process of becoming a goat.

2010-01-23T11:02:00.000-05:00

saw this on another friends wall some years ago. carved it freehand once into a piece of mahogany. this is douglas fir which made it more interesting with the grain differences. its about thirty by eleven.
just started a ten by twelve chunk of yellow locust. looks like a goat.

2010-01-10T12:37:00.003-05:00

saw this comment on a friends wall in two d. the wife liked it and as its been too cold for human activity outside for more than twenty minutes at a time, i carved it in some sourwood to hang on the wall. left the sharpie marks where i did the layout for emphasis.
we have turnips, mustard and kale under the snow and ice. the greens are under plastic row covers. it will be interesting to see if they live thru this artic blast.

2010-01-04T08:15:00.002-05:00

lane doesn't do much in the gardening department with this much snow on the ground and temps about ten or so.
she is reading up on new methods and is most impressed with the square foot methods.
this photo here is a carving i just finished for my father. its in lind about nine by five by four finished with mineral oil. its based on a character i did for him thirty years ago which in their moves and downsizing, went missing.

2009-12-20T12:43:00.002-05:00

this was the view out the window yesterday morn. it may have been about fifteen inches but with all of the north east winds involved in bringing it to us, there was much in the way of drifting so who knows.
today the roads are still impassable including main paved roads in the area. i ain't seen this much snow since i left WVA and even then it was january of 96 when we had this much there.

2009-12-09T09:58:00.001-05:00

Been almost a month since last post.

Lane and I have been busy and gardening is slow.

Carving continues and I just got back my rock picking truck from the hospital so that can resume.

We have three favorite gardening authors on the shelf at present. Eliot Coleman, john (his name can't be printed here because it brings a tag that is refused by the blog servers), book named; how to grow more vegetables and the book; square foot gardening. I recommend investigating these sources for gardening improvement.

2009-11-12T15:31:00.001-05:00

The garden chores are all finished and the clean up all done. We have put the garden to sleep, all settled down for a long winters nap. Craig and our friend jack went down to leather wood which is a riding facility. Using jack’s tractor, his truck and trailer brought home two large loads of composted horse manure to give the garden its finishing touch for the long winter’s rest that it deserves.

The garden has produced very well for us this year so to say thank you we gave it the composted manure to replenish the soil with some of the nutrients it used up to grow so many yummy vegetables. So now the garden can rest and so can I, well maybe. So why don’t you do something nice for your garden and come next season it will do something nice for you. So get up off of that couch, go find a horse or cattle farm and collect compost for your garden and to help you get motivated think; fresh tomatoes, red, ripe juicy tomatoes, delicious yellow sweet corn, yummy green beans. Do I need to say more? Happy composting.

2009-10-19T16:01:00.001-04:00

lane's busy again for a while so here is the latest finished carving. cherry, sixteen by nine by one inch.

2009-10-05T16:27:00.001-04:00

Remember sometime back lane told you that she was going to try her luck at growing sweet potatoes here on the mountain. At the time I was unsure if sweet potatoes would grow at this altitude. All summer the vines were awfully pretty but doesn’t mean that there any good sized potatoes under the vines. I have seen pretty vines with no sweet potatoes or at least none to talk about. Anyway I scratched mine out the other day and was I surprised. I started scratching one or two hills just to see and when I got started I was so overjoyed with what I found that I kept on digging. I dug about half of the hills on Thursday and the other half over the weekend. Some of the potatoes are huge and some are just good eating size. I ended with just shy of a bushel of potatoes. Not bad for having only seventeen hills and to be grown with nothing but dried tea out of old tea bags. Here they are take a look. This is only half of them. Did good didn’t I?

2009-10-04T08:15:00.002-04:00

lane creates fewer posts outside of traditional gardening season, though we are reading about how to have four seasons of garden, so here is one of my latest carvings, if it can be called that. i think for things like this, a different name would be useful.
its a cherry panel made by a friend twenty five years ago, for a table top, from much older air dried wood. there are two boards and its about thirty two by fifty inches. should you need to have this send a comment with communication links and we shall discuss how to make it yours. otherwise it shall hang in my window. it took a bit more than five months at about thirty hours a week.

2009-09-22T16:50:00.002-04:00

This has been a stay in the house, read garden books, dream about working in the soil and watching it rain kinda week. In the last week we’ve had over five inches of rain. The road to our house is a sloppy mess but the sun actually came out for a while today; Long enough for me to plant both mustard and kale. I planted turnips about three weeks ago and there are doing ok. The collards are coming along too. We’re gonna try our luck with cold frames when craig gets a chance to build them. The rainy weather has slowed everything down but the grass and weeds. Our yard is starting to look like a hayfield but it’s still not too late to plant fast growing plants such as radishes, onions, lettuce and cabbage. Continue to plant all kinds of perennials such as English daisies, carnations, chrysanthemums, coreopsis, and delphiniums, fox gloves, forget me nots, sweet Williams, wildflowers, violas, and pansies. You can make early plantings of white narcissus, crocus, jonquils, daffodils, hyacinths, and tulips. Now is also a good time to resow your lawn, plant evergreens, but be sure to give them plenty of water, yes water, and mulch them. Now is also a good time to plant roses. Today is the first day of fall after all so get out there and get started and hope that the rain is over for a while.

2009-09-10T16:58:00.001-04:00

Saturday night we had a small group of friends over. As the evening went along we talked about a lot of different things and somehow the subject of guns came up. We talked about what guns we had or didn’t have and what kind of ammo was good to use for what. Well somehow lane got on one of her story telling trips. Here is the story lane told and she hopes you enjoy it as much as our friends did.

My daddy used to have a bunch of chickens; A whole chicken house full of chickens. It was my job lane says to make sure all the chickens were all up and not any left out cause if any was left out a wild animal might catch it. Daddy’s chickens started disappearing and for a long time he didn’t know what was catching them. So we decided to watch and see if we could find out what it was that was catching our chickens. A few days went by with nothing to report and then a few more days went by with nothing yet. Then out of nowhere we heard the chickens cackle. Daddy and I ran up to the barn to find out what it was and lo and behold it was a big red fox that was catching our chickens. Daddy said something had to be done cause once a fox starts catching chickens it won’t stop till it catches all of them. That is unless you stop him first and that is exactly what lane and her daddy set out to do.

We decided to lay and wait for this chicken thief up in the apple orchard cause that’s the way he was traveling. We hid behind an old apple tree and watched. Daddy told me to be real quiet and not talk or we wouldn’t be able to see him cause daddy knew how hard it was for me to be quiet cause lane/I really do like to talk.

Well the first couple of times we watched for him we didn’t see anything but on the third day there he was strolling right along on his way to catch another chicken. He was a big red fox. The biggest red fox lane has ever seen. The sun was shinning on him and he was beautiful. Such a pity to have to kill him for the chicken thief he was.

When daddy saw him he felt in his pocket and brought out a shotgun shell. He said he’d been saving it for a time such as this. I/lane had never seen anything like it. it had a round ball in the end of the shell. Daddy called it a punkin ball. Daddy waited till the fox was close enough to shoot. He cut down on that fox, bam. The fox fell over and then he got up and ran. Daddy said he didn’t believe it after shooting the fox with that punkin ball he figured it would be impossible for him to get up and run off.

So we took off after him. We trailed blood all up the side of the mountain and never did find that fox. Daddy said it must have made it to his den but we never saw it again and we didn’t loose any more chickens.

Sitting here writing this story has brought back many memories. Lane says she can still see daddy as he squatted down behind that apple tree and the gleam in his eye the way he always smiled. My brother wayne does that too lane says and she can still see that red fox with his fur glistening in the sun. It makes her heart feel full and she feels warm all over and sitting here she is smiling too and thanking god for having the ability to remember.

2009-08-30T08:22:00.006-04:00

This year lane wants you to know she has an abundance of butternut squash, one of her favorite things. She planted two hills of butternut and off of those two hills there are probably anywhere from twenty five to fifty squash. The plants are too dense to count them accurately yet. Lane has found several recipes to use butternut squash in including lasagna, soups, salads and just baked in the oven with spices served with chicken or rice, for example. Here is a recipe lane thinks is really interesting she hasn’t had a chance to try yet but you might find equally interesting. the squash are in between the corn and mole plant.

one medium onion chopped, 3 tbsp butter, 2 top red curry powder, 2 tsp grated fresh ginger, 1/2 tsp salt, 14 oz can chicken broth, 1 1/4 cup water, 1 1/2 lb butternut squash, peeled, seeded and cut in one inch cubes, 14 oz can unsweetened coconut milk, 1/2 cup half and half, 1/3 cup chopped cilantro.

cook onion in butter until tender and clear, stir in curry powder, ginger, salt and cook briefly.

stir in chicken broth and water and bring to a boil. add squash and return to a boil. reduce heat and simmer covered for forty minutes or squash tender. cool slightly and blend. stir in coconut milk, half and half and cilantro. bring back to just below boil. serve.

2009-08-24T15:58:00.003-04:00

this is the sign i painted and put by our new entry gate area. the neighborhood is occasionally frequented by looters as we are in a remote area, and this is intended to cause them to pause, along with the large german shepards.

2009-08-21T10:02:00.003-04:00

as lane is busy with all sorts of odds and ends, several part time jobs and the remaining tomatoes, i thought it would be interesting to some to see what i did with some of the white rocks she keeps bringing home. we are now a gated community. here is one of the two, side by side gates. the treated one by sixes are five foot long. i also painted a sign lane wants me to include in this post, so i shall go out now and take a photo of that and post it soon.

2009-08-16T13:57:00.001-04:00

The garden is about on its last legs. Most of the tomatoes are long gone but we still have some stragglers. The butternut squash are beautiful and lane says she is gonna have a load of them. The pumpkins are doing well also. The vines of the butternuts have run all the way down to the tomato patch. Lane says she worked the soil this morning to tear it up so she could plant turnips in a few days. Lane says Dudley wants to learn more about gardening so she is gonna teach me. She is showing me the basics right now. I already had some idea and had done some but not enough to be useful.

Lane is gonna have me assist when she harvests potatoes this week. Its gonna be my first lesson at getting my hands dirty and enjoying it are her words.

Yesterday we had friends over for dinner and afterwards we went outside to sit because it was such a nice evening. Not to hot and humid as it has been. As we were sitting outside the nats and mosquitoes started biting so lane suggested making a nat smoke. Needless to say lane says none of the city people or even me knew what she was talking about. And you probably don’t either.

Here’s how it works; get an old metal pot or pan that’s not in use anymore, set it on the ground and go find some dry grass, leaves and small twigs. Put them in the container and light the grass with a match. Let it burn for a minute or two, blow out the fire and then you are left with smoke. And that’s all you need to keep the bugs at bay. Lane guarantees that this works. Lane’s momma did this all the time for the kids when she played outside in the summer. Old remedies work as well or better than these new fangled ones that use only chemicals which are hard on the environment and your lungs. Please try the nat smoke and see for yourself how it works.

2009-08-07T15:50:00.001-04:00

We had a massive thunder storm here Wednesday evening. High winds and strong rains gave us two inches of rain in thirty minutes and a lot of wind damage. It blew down most of lane’s one and only, first and last corn crop of the year. Seems like lane wasn’t meant to eat corn this season but to her wonderful surprise, today when she go to the post office, her friend Cathy had for lane a large grocery bag full of peaches and cream corn. Then when lane got out on the route, her friend Barry who happens to be the other mail carrier at the post office, who wasn’t working today gave lane another bag of corn which his wife had already shucked and silked and was ready to cook.

Boy was that corn good. Lane and I both ate four ears each. What wonderful true friends’ lane says she would have; Ones that would give away such wonderful sweet corn. Thanks guys she says.

2009-07-23T13:47:00.001-04:00

Lane wants to share a short story with you involving her parents.

If lane’s momma was to find out that she was telling stories about her she’d swear lane was lying but lane promises this is the true, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help her god.

It’s getting that time of year when lane’s daddy used to go coon hunting just to let the dogs run. Sometimes he went alone and sometimes he would take one of the young’uns along but lane’s momma is one of those jealous types. You know one of those “it’s all about me” kinds of women. She would get jealous when daddy would let one of the kids go so this time daddy decided to take momma instead.

On this particular night there was a full moon. Daddy said it would be easier to see where he was going so he didn’t take along the lantern. Well they set off about eight thirty and about twenty minutes later they came back. We all knew something had happened because they wouldn’t have come back that soon.

The kids asked daddy what was wrong and he couldn’t answer because he was laughing his head off and momma sure didn’t want to talk about it. Come to find out daddy said they got to about the old apple orchard when momma swore she heard a ‘painter (panther). Daddy told her it wasn’t anything but the wind. She said it sounded like a woman screaming so it had to be a ‘painter. She would not go any further.

Daddy said he told her to go home then if she was afraid but she wouldn’t go without him so he walked her back home and she never asked to go coon hunting ever again.

Ps; lane go her first Cherokee purple tomato today.

2009-07-06T15:35:00.001-04:00

July has been an unusual month with below normal temperature, little rain, gorgeous sun and low humidity; Lane says she loves it and so does the garden. All of the vegetables are happy. We have had some good rain the past few days; around one inch total so far. Lane went to Wilkesboro today to get some organic plant food for the corn and tomatoes because it looked like it was going to rain which would be a good time to feed. Lane will have green beans by the end of the week. They are a snap bush bean with a small brown bean inside. Lane grew these last year and they were great. The taste was nutty which she likes and they cook faster than half runner beans. Lane has a new bean which is in her garden growing a new friend gave her the seed for. Someone gave her family these beans forty or so years ago. She calls them turkey craw beans because according to the story lane heard a man killed a wild turkey and cut open its craw where he found these beans. She says they are delicious. Lane can’t wait to try them. Here is a photo lane took of them running up a trellis lane built and wrote about a few posts back. The trellis is about six foot tall.

2009-06-28T13:23:00.001-04:00

Summer is finally here or so it seems. The temperature here on the mountain has been ninety degrees or more most of the week. The tomatoes and peppers are loving it. Lane says she noticed some tomatoes the size of a tennis ball this morning. The peppers are blooming but no sign of any peppers yet.

Lane speaks of having gathered more squash and cucumbers this morning. Everything looks good even though we haven’t had any rain for a few days and we are starting to need some. Dog days starts July third. The old saying is that if dog days starts out wet then it will be wet all thru dog days but if it starts out dry then it will be dry all thru dog days. Lane tells me she sure hopes it rains on Friday. Lane pulled another row of garlic last week and had some nice cloves. She plans on pulling the rest of the garlic this week. The garlic needs to dry for four to six weeks and then cut the tops off and put it in onion sacks. Then we hang them in a cool place like the root cellar. Hope it’s not the strong garlic but lane says she guesses we will have to wait and see. Toodlooo.

2009-06-21T14:59:00.001-04:00

The garden is slowly starting to produce. This week lane says she has gathered both patty pan and yellow crook neck squash. The cucumbers are coming on also. Lane says she hasn’t picked any yet but probably will in a few days. They are covered with tiny cukes. Lane is starting to harvest our garlic. So far she has pulled one short row. She has tied the garlic in bunches to dry just like her grandmother used to tie onions. She used to hang her onions in the woodshed. She tied the onions by their tops using seagrass string. Then she hung the onions from poles that were running across the middle of her woodshed. Lane is hanging the garlic tied with tomato string on clothes line using clothes pins in her greenhouse. This way the garlic can air dry without getting sunburned. So far this season we have had spinach, romaine, cabbage and sweet peas. Not bad, eh?

Good luck with your garden.

2009-06-17T08:23:00.003-04:00

short gardening break here to show my newest item.
this is black walnut, three inches thick, fifty inches long and fourteen tall.
this photo is before the oil using a flash.

2009-06-12T15:00:00.001-04:00

Lane says her garden is coming along. The potatoes have already bloomed which means that they are hard at work making potatoes for the fall. The squash and the cucumbers are in full bloom also. They have small cucumbers and squash on them. We should be eating them in about a week. The tomatoes are blooming but lane says she hasn’t seen any tomatoes yet. The beans are starting to have runners; won’t be long till they are in bloom. Maybe have green beans by mid July or earlier. Sure hope so. Why does it seem to take so long for that first tomato, bean, etc, or whatever vegetable you are most fond of to bring forth fruit. Then after you get it and you eat it a few times you get tired of it and move on to something else. Lane says she doesn’t know but is ready to eat something, anything. She tells me she thinks she will walk to the garden to see if something’s ready.

2009-06-02T16:47:00.001-04:00

Last year lane says she bought three, ever-bearing strawberry plants.

She didn’t have space in the garden for them so she planted them in a plastic window box and sat them on the garden wall.

If you are familiar with growing strawberries then you already know what happened next but since some of you aren’t experienced with the growth pattern of strawberries she is about to tell you.

The strawberries did great in the window box for a while. She picked quite a few berries off of these three plants and all was fine until the plants started making baby plants or runners as they are called. Then the runners went everywhere; down the sides of the window box. They even spread out in the window box crowding out the parent plants. Still with no room to put these pesky things she pinched them off and made them into compost.

So this year when they started growing I suggested to lane that she make herself a large bed for them out of cinder block since we have many. So lane decided to take my suggestion and make a raised bed for the strawberries. First lane looked for an all day sun spot and that wasn’t in the way of anything else. After some searching lane decided to use one of her flower beds that was close to the garden. Perfect, she said to herself, Now how to go about building this thing. She was somewhat nervous about building it at first all by “myself”. Since she had never done anything like that before. She had always been the “holdthat”.

But, she says, she had watched me build many things out of block so she pretty much knew what to do and felt confident that she could do it.

She got started digging the footer for the base knowing to always get the first course level and straight. If you do you won’t have problems.

When she did run into something she wasn’t quite sure about she came to me and asked for the benefit of experience.

The project took, probably three or four hours but lane did it and it turned out well. She is very proud of herself because it’s the first thing she has ever built on her own. Its not perfect but almost she says. She really likes it and the strawberry plants do to. Just goes to show that you never know what you can do until you try.

2009-05-25T12:46:00.002-04:00

roasted butternut squash lasagne;
3 pounds butternut squash quartered, seeded, peeled and cut into half inch dice.
3 tbl vegetable oil
4 cup milk
2 tbl dried rosemary crumbled
1 tbl minced garlic, or more should you be interested in extra servings of such
half stick unsalted butter
4 tbl ap flour
9- 7x3 sheets dry no-boil lasagna pasta
1 1/3 cup fresh grated parmesan, about 5 oz
one cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp salt

preheat oven to 450 and oil two large shallow baking pans.
toss squash with oil until well coated and spread in pans. roast squash in oven ten min and season with salt. stir squash and roast ten or more minutes until tender and beginning to brown.
while squash is roasting bring milk to simmer with rosemary. heat over low heat for ten minutes and strain out rosemary.
in another pan sautee garlic in butter until soft and beginning to brown, add flour and cook resulting roux while stirring about three minutes.
remove roux from heat and whip in milk until smooth, return to heat stirring occasionally for about ten minutes or till obviously thicker. stir in squash, s&p.
reduce oven temp to 375 and butter baking dish 13x9x2.
pour 1 cup sauce into dish but it won't completely cover bottom of pan.
cover pan bottom with three lasagna sheets. spread half of remaining sauce over pasta and sprinkle with 1/2 cup parmesan. layer till sauce is gone ending with pasta.
beat cream with salt until its to stiff peak stage and spread evenly over the top of the pasta. sprinkle remaining parmesan over cream.
cover dish tight with foil, tenting a bit to keep foil from touching food and bake thirty minutes.
remove foil and bake ten more minutes to brown.
let stand for five after removal from oven.

2009-05-24T15:21:00.001-04:00

Gardening is lane’s passion. She loves gardening as much as anything she does except for helping others. She has so many things she wants to plant every season but with limited space she has to be careful about what she plants and how she plants it.

She really likes green beans. All kinds of beans and you probably know that there are many. Some climb. Some bush. Lane likes pole beans the best so to be able to plant more climbers or pole beans with the space available she decided to build a trellis out of bamboo and wire. As a matter of fact she says, she liked the first trellis she built so much that she built two more. On these trellis’s she plans on growing pole beans, wax beans, and cucumbers. The wax beans are an old heirloom bean that a friend gave her the seed of many years ago. Lane says she was told they were her mothers beans and this lady is in her eighties so lane suspects the beans are a hundred years old or more. They sure are delicious lane says. I don’t like southern style, cooked forever, beans. Lane won’t have them any other way.

Here is how lane built her trellis if you wish to try one for yourself. First you need to find the bamboo but if you can’t find bamboo small wood poles would do or even fencing stakes. Here’s what you need; six eight foot by two inch bamboo, eighty inches of wire long by twenty wide or you can choose your own dimensions. Chicken wire is what lane built these from. You will need string or wire to attach the wire to the poles. Lane used tomato ties. Here’s how lane made the trellis; dig four holes two foot deep and she used post hole diggers; Two foot apart on the corners and four foot wide. Put poles in the hole and fill around them with the dirt you removed from the hole. Pack the dirt around them. Attach the wire starting at one bottom almost touching the ground. Bring the wire up the post securing as you go. Then drop the wire over the top creating an arch and secure the other side.

In the center of the arch place two poles for support and now its time to plant. You can plant flowers, cucumbers, beans, or anything that likes to climb. Good luck and good gardening.

2009-05-17T14:28:00.002-04:00

We have had some rain here for the biggest part of the week. Good for the crops. Lane finally got most of her veggies in the ground but still has musk melon and hot pepper to plant. She found some Tabasco pepper plants Friday at of all places, wally world and they even had sweet potato plants. Who would have thought it?

They were expensive; nine plants for three dollars but lane bought two packs or eighteen plants. Lane says she has never tried to grow sweet potatoes at this altitude and doesn’t know if they will make potatoes or not. We will just have to wait and see.

Lane is trying a new type of butternut squash called butter bush. It’s supposed to grow large fruits without the vines. Both lane and I look forward to the harvest of these yummy gourds. Lane has a wonderful recipe for butternut squash lasagna. A friend gave lane this recipe several years ago. The lasagna was her first encounter with butternut squash and it was love at first bite. Let lane know if you want the recipe as she will be glad to share it with you.

2009-05-10T16:32:00.001-04:00

Still down at midtown market six days a week weather permitting. Lane loves the rain but is so far behind in her garden prep that even though its Sunday, the day of rest, she has decided she has to work in her garden and try to get some plants in the ground.

This morning lane tilled the soil, and got it ready to transplant tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, peppers both hot and sweet, basil, and maybe some butternut squash into the ground. Lane is going to hoe her potatoes also. May is the time to plant sweet corn from May till mid June. Never transplant in the morning unless it’s a cloudy day cause if you transplant in the morning and the sun shines chances are that the heat from the sun will kill your plants. That is unless you shade them with a shade cloth that you can buy at most garden centers or you can shade them with tree limbs that have lots of mature leaves. Lane recommends planting late in the evening after the sun has gone down.

But, whenever you transplant always remember to give your plants plenty of water. Good luck and good planting. Lane says now its off to the garden for her as she hears her plants calling.

2009-04-17T07:53:00.005-04:00

lane is now working her regular part time job as well as her spring time part time job at a local nursery as their all around plant and customer service person. she had intended to do a blog about her garlic patch which is what this photo is about; its the garlic she planted last fall coming up with a strategically placed cat to show scale.

2009-03-28T12:52:00.001-04:00

Wet and dreary here on the mountain at fifty degrees lane went out and planted three long rows of potatoes.

Four new varieties and the old standby Kennebec. The new varieties are Yukon gold; the flesh is dry and perfect for baking and mashing or so the label that came with them states. They are from Canada and are supposed to be great keepers.

German butterball; a yellow potato good for roasting, frying and especially good for mashed potatoes the label tells us. That’s a sure plus for us cause we both love mashed potatoes and gravy and they are also a good keeper.

Yellow thin; is supposed to have a buttery sweet flavor. They are a classic European gourmet potato, best for boiling, frying, mashing or baking. They are also a good keeper, we read.

And the potato patch wouldn’t be complete without something completely different. Lane is trying a purple potato called purple Viking. Lane has grown purple potatoes before and has found them to be delicious. A friend of ours from Chapel Hill has brought lane purple potatoes in the past but these are totally different. Purple Vikings have a deep purple skin and the flesh is snow white. The label says that they are slightly sweet and are good for mashing and are good keepers.

We are gonna put that root cellar to good use. Lane also planted four cabbage plants called early dutch flathead. She says she grew them last year and they were great. Don’t forget to plant your potatoes this month if you can and lane says she will talk to you later.

2009-03-15T16:03:00.002-04:00

Container gardening is that where anyone including city folks can grow a container garden. No matter how small your space, as long as you have the three major things that all plants have to have to grow.

These are soil, water and light. Almost any large pot with a drainage hole in the bottom will do but first we need to have our seedlings started.

Starting gardens indoors is easy. All you need is something small with drainage; old coffee cans. cups, clean take out containers or even the bottom of old water bottles. Just make sure to allow good drainage by poking holes in the bottoms and placing them on plates or saucers so the water doesn’t spill onto the floor or window sill. Fill the containers with a layer of course gravel, and then a layer of organic seed starting soil. Plant the seeds and water well. Once the seeds have outgrown their containers transplant them to bigger pots. It’s best to place plants in a south facing window for at least six hours of direct sunlight a day. Keep them away from cold drafts. Once the seedlings are big enough and the weather is right transplant them outside in your bigger container.

Here are a few things lane speaks of enjoying growing in containers;

Leaf lettuce, onions, kale, tomatoes and you can even plant potatoes just to name a few. It’s best to use a shallow five gallon container for the potatoes.

Some large tomatoes need a larger container from five to ten gallon size if you can find it. Herbs can also be grown in containers and can be brought in when the summer growing season is over. Window boxes work well for lettuce, onions and even cherry tomatoes. Cucumbers can be grown in containers also and lane recommends the bush variety for this. Dwarf fruit trees can be grown in large containers on your patio or deck. Just keep in mind that any thing you grow in containers needs to be watered regularly. If you have a side yard or a back yard you can build a small raised bed. In a sixteen square foot garden you can grow a surprising amount of food. It’s nice to plant vegetables that compliment each other when growing but also compliment each other in cooking such as plum tomatoes, basil, parsley, oregano and green peppers and all in sixteen square feet. With a little work and creativity you can start growing a garden where ever you live. Indoors, on the balcony or deck, or on your patio, small yard or window sill; If lane can do it you can too, says lane and she also says later…………..

2009-03-11T19:33:00.001-04:00

Lane says its time to start thinking about all of those early crops that need to be planted this month. She says she knows it’s been some time since her last blog and she is sorry but when she has nothing to say, she has nothing to say. Now that gardening season is upon us she has more to say. Here are some of the things she plants early; potatoes, peas, onions, lettuce, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, carrots, beats and spinach or any thing else she likes in the cabbage family. As soon as the soil is dry enough to work lane begins her garden planting and yours should too. Lane says her daddy taught her about planting these things early many years ago and he has never steered her wrong. Even though he’s been dead a long time his advice will never die. He really knew what he was doing. He and lane’s grandmother always used the almanac to know what sign of the moon to plant by and so does lane.

Here are the dates in March you will need to use to plant these early veggies for this area of the mountains of North Carolina.

For above ground crops the second thru the sixth and the twenty ninth and the thirtieth.

For root crops the thirteenth thru the seventeenth, the twenty first thru the twenty fifth.

For seed beds the sixth and the seventh, sixteenth and seventeenth.

To transplant the first thru the third, the twenty sixth thru the thirty first.

To plant flowers the sixth and the seventh, the thirteenth thru the fifteenth.

Lane says if you follow these moon signs that you will see a difference in your success rate now and later when its time to harvest. Remember you don’t have to have a big space to garden as a small space will do. You can even grow lots of plants in containers and we will speak of that next time.

2009-02-19T13:29:00.001-05:00

Lane tells me her little brain figured out something to write so here it is. She also says the truth is always the best policy.

Yesterday she says we had two nasty inches of snow. It was very wet and slippery. When lane left home in the morning it was raining and just starting to mix with snow. A short time later it turned into all snow. Even down on elk creek where she delivers mail it was snowing. She says when she got back to the post office she called me to see what was happening here on the mountain. I said it had snowed hard for a while and there was possibly an inch or so of snow. It was like real northern cold place sort of thick in the air snow with big flakes.

So lane left the po to come home and got up on white rock where the road was pretty good until lane got about three quarters of a mile from home where her vehicle started spinning going up a steep hill. She has a full time four wheel drive automatic transmission rav4. Good on flat land sort of roads but not reliable transportation in bad weather in the mountains.

She couldn’t go forwards and she couldn’t go backwards. If she did try to go backwards she started sliding so she stopped the vehicle and go out her handy dandy window scraper and cleaned out a clear path behind her so she go in reverse without wet snow stopping progress. When she did this she was able to back down the hill without difficulty. She parked in the first wide spot she could find, locked the rav and walked home. When she got here I told her I was beginning to think I was gonna have to go looking for her as she was later than she had said she would be. So she told me what happened and I asked her what she wanted to do. She said lets go eat Mexican which means going to Wilkesboro to her favorite Mexican restaurant; la Fortuna. The food was excellent as always. By the time we got back I was able to drive her rav home for her and she drove the hooptie because she was too nervous to drive hers on such snow. Didn’t bother me as I’m used to actual snow instead of the practice runs we have here.

Today the snow is mostly gone and the yellow daffodils are in bloom. Funny the difference a day makes.

2009-02-13T08:39:00.003-05:00

seems this time of year isn't useful for active gardening. lane is not in the mood to write anything at the moment and to keep my hand in it i add these thoughts and accompanying photo.
the greenhouse wasn't insulated as funds were thin and time had expired on that project for the winter.
winter is chain saw and firewood time. fewer snakes, bugs and its easier to get about in the woods. insulation will be required in the greenhouse and i may add some heat sinks when the plans present themselves. current thoughts extend to some flat black water containers for heat retention and if somewhat flat ease of heat release. this would make for passive heat without fire or electric to make it so.
we are working on a garden bed extension. we are changing the area of the dog lot to do this. the dog lot for our two german shepard females surrounds the garden on most of three sides. this helps keep bambi from dining upon lane's tomatoes and other such vegetable items. the photo from last summer shows the fence; its the skis you see in the background.
i was a food and beverage manager at a local ski resort. the skis were rentals being thrown in the dumpster. i thought it would be nice to consider some other sort of use for them. when combined with inexpensive stock woven wire, and woven into it, they keep the dogs in, most of the time. they also provide a converstation stimulus for the curious.

2009-01-30T13:27:00.003-05:00

with gardening on the slow side another thing we do is gather firewood. this photo has four stacks about twenty foot long by three feet high of locust. it was laying there dead, as a by product of past logging, and not decaying a bit so cut, split and stacked it has more future use possibilities. we have several more like it though one is poplar but that is good for starting fires and putting a warm one on cruse control.

2009-01-28T13:36:00.002-05:00

Not much happening here on the mountain. We’ve had a couple of nice days and a couple of rainy days. Lane has been getting many of the seeds that she has ordered from those catalogs she talked about earlier. Here is a list of some of the seeds lane has ordered some of which she had never grown before;

From Burpee lane ordered two types of cucumbers, lemon, which is the size and color of a large lemon with a sweet flavor and is an heirloom variety. She speaks of looking forward to growing these. The other is called pickle bush that she got to grow in pots. Lane also got a new pepper variety which is also an heirloom called hot lemon pepper. Lane says it sounds like she has a trend going with yellows doesn’t it. She also got a new sweet corn called silver choice which is supposed to be real sweet. Lane says since I am partial to white corn she ordered it for me.

From R. H. Shumway lane ordered a white pattypan squash that she had never grown before but she had heard that they are really good. We’ll see says lane.

Lane and I both love spinach so we’re going to try a new variety called New Zealand spinach that is said to bear from early summer to frost.

Lane also ordered a couple of different tomatoes; Mr. stripey which we both like. It is a yellow tomato with red stripes and low acid. She also got another variety called homestead that is a medium she believes will be real good, of course who would expect her to order one she didn’t expect to be good.

She says she can’t wait to try these new seeds and that’s the end of her story.

2009-01-18T15:14:00.002-05:00

lane hasn't any words recently so here is another of my wood workings. this belongs to a friend who, upon seeing it in process proclaimed it would be theirs. sufficient cash and it became theirs. its about three inches thick by fourteen by twenty four inches and from one piece of mahogany.

2009-01-12T17:03:00.001-05:00

This week here on paisley ridge we have had a variety of weather; Three inches of rain, a dusting of snow, heavy wind and some beautiful sunshine. Lane has been busy ordering seed for spring planting. This year lane is gonna try some new things like Jerusalem artichoke. In the catalog they sounded interesting and they were recommended to lane by a friend and by me. She heard they taste like water chestnuts, are crunchy and are good for you so that sold lane. Now we’ll have to see how they do here and how lane likes them cause she’s skeptical till she sees for herself. Lane found some cornfield beans in a new catalog the other day that she has been looking for for some time so when she saw them she immediately ordered some. They were called pink tip cornfield beans. Lane’s daddy used to grow them she says and remembers them being delicious. She has also ordered a few more types of heirloom tomatoes and can’t wait to get them planted.

She found a new/old type called giant ox heart. The description sounds like the old heirloom tomato that has been passed around for years in the area and no one seems to know what kind it is. She thinks they may be the same as the one known here as the alice hodge tomato. She will let you know if they are the same one in case you are familiar with one or the other.

2009-01-07T10:14:00.003-05:00

lane seems to be having a lack of muse attacks so here is a recent poplar bowl carved from green wood with some copper flashing accents on the ends. its about sixteen inches about and three or so deep.

2008-12-31T16:27:00.001-05:00

The last couple of days here on the mountain have felt like early spring. It has been beautiful but today feels like winter again. The wind has been blowing really hard; So much different than yesterday. Lane says she and I have been working outside. We got a lot done. Lane finished cleaning off her garden and now its ready to be tilled which she will do in March. The garlic she planted in November is coming up already. Lane is very excited about watching it grow. I have been busy cutting more dead hemlocks which I hate to do but the wooly white bug has killed them all and if left standing they are a fire hazard and also are in the way of new growth. Lane speaks of how I have also been hauling more rocks for a new project when the weather permits.

We are expanding our garden space again so lane will have more room to plant vegetables. On cold days like this lane likes to stay in as much as possible and look at the seed catalogs she has received in the mail which helps her decide what to plant this coming season. Warm sunny days like the last few gets her itch going to work in the soil but she knows she has to be patient cause its just too early. Patience has never been one of lane’s virtues she says but her granny Hester used to say that you acquire patience with age and she guesses she just isn’t that old yet.

2008-12-25T16:09:00.001-05:00

Thank god Christmas is over sayeth the lane; Time to move on. Seems like Christmas lasts so much longer than it used to. Christmas now starts in July and not after thanksgiving like it used to. Christmas isn’t about celebrating Christ’s birth like it used to be. Now it’s all about money. It’s the get me season. Shop till you drop and such things. But regardless of what you buy for someone else it’s never quite right. You can see it on their faces and hear it in their voices. Lane says she used to play this game like everyone else but not anymore. It’s crazy. Lane says she only buys for me and her grandson. That’s it. There’s no rushing to the malls for her. Spend, spend, spend; there’s never enough. Christmas is a time for family. Just being happy to have each other alive and well and remembering whose birthday we’re celebrating. Last evening lane and I went to her sister’s house for Christmas Eve dinner. We’ve done this for several years; the whole families there. We eat too much, laugh a lot and enjoy being together. Seems to lane like that should be enough. Lane says she knows it is for her; Merry Christmas and good night.

2008-12-16T15:35:00.001-05:00

There’s not much going on here on the mountain. We’ve had an excess of four inches of rain here in the last few days so there’s not a lot that can be done. I have been cutting and splitting firewood and because of lane’s schedule and the rain she is behind on the wood stacking. Lane has been inside a lot this past week looking at and reading her gardening catalogs. Here is a list of a few good web sites to help you thru the winter doldrums. If you like heirloom vegetables the way lane does here are some of her favorite web sites;

Burpee.com

Rareseeds.com

Johnnyseeds.com

Tomatogrowers.com

Thompsonandandmorgan.com

Or you can find loads of catalogs for plants and garden supplies at mailordergardening.com

Now is the time to prune trees and shrubs while they are dormant. Its also good to cut back on feeding house plants and then begin again in spring. Lane hopes this helps.

2008-12-10T15:36:00.001-05:00

Today is December tenth with just two weeks till Christmas.

Time sure does seem to fly these days, especially since lane has hit fifty she says. All of her life she has heard people talk about the time seeming to fly by. Until recently lane didn’t know what they were talking about. Lane says she knows now and they were right. When you’re a little kid it seems like time just drags by. School seems to last forever and it seems like Christmas will never come but then we grow up and live our lives. There never seems to be enough time for doing all the things we really want to do like spending more time with family and friends. Before we know it will be time again to start our vegetable gardens and lane speaks of how she looks forward to getting her hands dirty.

Already seed catalogs are arriving in the mail and now is a good time to take thirty minutes to take time to look at these catalogs and make plans for spring. Lane has a notebook where she lists plants and seeds that she wants to grow next spring. She also keeps a journal of her gardens good and bad experiences from year to year. This helps her to know what plants and seeds did well and which didn’t.

This way if something didn’t work out she can try something different next year so while its cold outside relax with a cup of tea or hot chocolate and a good seed catalog by the fire. And remember that time does fly and it will be spring again before we know it.

2008-12-07T12:33:00.001-05:00

Lane and I both love garlic. Seems our personal motto is you never have too much garlic. Its past time, almost, to get garlic planted in your garden. In some areas where the ground is already frozen it may be too late. The ideal time to plant garlic is September thru November. Garlic needs a cold ground to do its thing; multiply. When we decided to plant our own garlic which lane had never done before, I got on several web sites before I could find any seed garlic. It took several tries before I found a seed company that still had any planting garlic left for this season. We ordered three pounds of what they had left.

This is what they were able to send us; island artichoke which is a very large white bulb, red rezain which is a small purple bulb with red streaks, yekak which is small and purple, metich which is smaller still with purple and red stripes. The three pounds of garlic planted three and a half rows. The rows are about thirty feet long. When I ordered the guy I spoke with said that one pound would plant a thirty five foot row. He was right. I ordered the garlic on Saturday from a company in northwest Washington near the Canadian border and they arrived on Monday.

Garlic coming from that cold of an area should do well in our garden. When they arrived it was cold and rainy. Lane dreaded getting wet but knew she couldn’t wait to plant the garlic because we had almost waited too long to order them. So lane planted three and a half rows on November 24. Lane thinks it was just in time cause the weather has been nothing but bad ever since.

Here’s how to plant garlic if you need and want to plant it. Make a furrow two inches deep, break the heads apart into cloves and plant each clove six inches apart. Cover this with two inches of soil and mulch immediately with straw. That’s all you need to do until spring. The garlic does the rest.

Why plant so much garlic you may ask. Because its so very good for you. It can help lower blood pressure, high cholesterol and its also good for a cold. It makes great pickles not to mention being wonderful in cooking. We eat garlic in almost anything. If you haven’t thought about planting garlic then maybe you will next year. Lane hopes so.

2008-11-30T11:24:00.002-05:00

This is the day they call thanksgiving. The day we should stop and reflect on the many, many blessings that we all have. Maybe some will think in times like these, what do I have to be thankful for. If you grew up hard like a lot of us did then you’ll know what I mean. Not having money or fancy food and not living in a big expensive house but remember that we did have food, a place to lay our head and above all we had the most important things; love of family and life.

Here is an example of thanksgiving dinner when lane was growing up. It may make you realize that you do have a lot to be thankful for. Lane knows she does.

The day before thanksgiving lane’s daddy would go to the barn and pick out an old fat hen. He killed her there and then brought her home to momma to clean up. She would pour boiling water over the chicken to remove the feathers and then she would hold the chicken over the open fire of the cook stove to singe the pin feathers. Then momma would peel and cook a pumpkin or apples depending on what she had. On Thanksgiving Day she would start early in the morning cooking that chicken on the wood stove and then she would roll out her dough to make her pies. Dinner was ready when it was ready. Be it twelve o’clock or three in the afternoon. Lane’s parents always made sure that the kids had something special to eat on thanksgiving and Christmas and even as a kid they could feel that it was important to them to let them know how much they had to be thankful for.

The rest of the year they had beans and cornbread or taters and cornbread for lunch and supper and maybe both beans and taters if they had plenty. Most of the time it was one or the other and rarely both and seldom did they ever get pie. So they all learned early on that on thanksgiving they did have a lot to be grateful for. All that good food or it seemed really good back then. So if you feel down cause things ain’t as good or as plentiful as they once were and you’ve had to cut back just remember that no matter how bad you think you’ve had it there’s always someone that’s got it a lot worse. Lane knows she does; Happy thanksgiving and do remember to be grateful for what you do have cause you could be eating beans.

Lane here provides a sample of the menu they had for thanksgiving dinner; stewed chicken or chicken and dumplings, mashed taters, green beans, cake of cornbread, apple or pumpkin pie or maybe dried apple stack cake.

The photo is what remains of the house lane grew up in.

2008-11-25T15:56:00.001-05:00

As a lot of you may know and for those who don’t lane has a six year old grandson who is named jasper. He is in the first grade. He likes lane to stop on her way to work in the morning to get him out of bed. They make a game out of him getting up. Lane thinks she probably enjoys it more than he does cause she gets to see him and spend a little time with him that otherwise she wouldn’t get to. He enjoys it but he knows that when lane gets him up he then has to go to school a short time later.

He loves school but like all kids gets tired of getting up early every day. Last Friday morning when lane went by his great grandmothers house where he lives she told lane that she would probably need lane’s help soon. Lane asked what was wrong cause she was crying. She told lane that her older sister had had a stroke and that she was paralyzed. The doctors had sent her home because they felt there was nothing more that they could do for her. They said she might live two weeks. Sad lane says she knows but his grandmother wanted lane to take care of jasper when the time comes so he won’t have to be involved in the funeral process.

His great grandmother and her sisters are all very close. So close in fact that her late husband had two children with her sister, who just had the stroke, before he started dating her. They never married and the sister and great grandmother stayed close and saw each other often. So when this sister got sick the whole family had rallied around to help and comfort one another.

Lane once asked her former mother in law, jaspers great grandmother, how things like that happened; One man having children with two different sisters. She said that back then some fifty or more years ago that the only people available to have relationships with was usually kinfolk and people did what they had to do. Lane was shocked as she had never heard tell of such things before. Lane was brought up to believe that family was family the first time and you didn’t mess around with your family.

When the great grandmother told lane that she and her husband were first cousins it blew lane’s mind. She asked if there were any bad feelings toward the sister because of this and she said no; why should she? Talk about next of kin. Too close for lane.

2008-11-23T16:18:00.001-05:00

Here we are at the end of November and thanksgiving is almost here.

We’ve had two small snows already in November. Lane hopes this isn’t the trend cause she does hate snow; any snow. She didn’t always hate winter and snow; just lately. When lane was a kid she and her brother loved the snow cause they wouldn’t have any school and they wouldn’t have to get up as early and they could spend the whole day hiking in the woods. She remembers looking out and seeing a big snow and yelling oh boy. Then she would go wake up her brother Wayne and get him out of bed, take off and go next door to her grannies house crawl in behind the wood cook stove and wait on breakfast. Lane’s granny always made the best biscuits and gravy she has ever had. They would eat and then take off to the woods. They would stay gone till dark just walking thru the woods in the snow. She wonders if her parents ever wondered about them being gone like that. She guesses they didn’t cause they didn’t say anything when they got home. Now that she’s a little older she doesn’t like the snow or the cold. She guesses that’s because she has to be out in to deliver your mail. Sometimes she wishes she could look out the window, see a big snow, yell oh boy, crawl back into bed, go back to sleep and not worry about being out in the weather but she’s not that lucky. You know what the motto is at the post office; neither snow nor rain, sleet or hail can keep us from our appointed rounds or something like that; So anyway happy thanksgiving.

2008-11-16T15:18:00.002-05:00

Yesterday Lane and I went to a gun show in hickory. We have gone there several times before. There’s always a large group of people there; rednecks, city boys and girls and a few kids. Lane was expecting a lot of people but we were not prepared for or even thought about the huge crowd that was at this show. People were lined up out the door just to get in to this thing. When we finally did make our way into this place it was totally packed. It was difficult to move around and even more so to see anything. It was elbow to elbow two or three lines thick all the way thru this place. The people that were there weren’t the usual gun show groupies. There were the usual types like hunters, good ole boys, rednecks and their girlfriends but there was also a different group there as well; mom and dad along with grandma and grandpa were there also. There were also a lot of young people there as well. The well to do and the not so well to do and why were they all there you might be wondering.

Lane thinks it’s because everyone is afraid of these uncertain times that we are living in. they feel like they need to protect themselves from the unknown. People were buying all types of guns and ammo. It was difficult to find certain types of ammo and some dealers were even sold out. This was early in the day of the first day of the show. If what we saw yesterday at this gun show is in any way what’s happening in the rest of the country then lane says; I would dearly advise you if you don’t know how to garden that you learn and do so quickly cause the way it looks by the desperation we witnessed yesterday on peoples faces if things go as they might a person needs to be prepared for anything.

Be it the terrorists taking away our way of life or stealing our food supply so plan that garden soon.

2008-11-15T16:27:00.001-05:00

Here we are in the middle of November and before you know it there will be snow on the ground. Up here in the high country we have already had a dusting of snow and the weather forecast is calling for a chance of snow today. Before it snows you need to get those bulbs in the ground so you will have beautiful flowers next spring. Some of the bulbs you need to plant now are; daffodils or easter lilies as lane’s granny called them, tulips, crocus’s and hyacinths even iris and day lilies. It’s also a good time to plant small trees and shrubs. We need to get them in the ground as soon as we can before the ground freezes. Now is also the time to dig up some of the summer flowering plants such as dahlias, elephant ears and the beautiful angel trumpets.

If not dug up they will more than likely, freeze. Here on our mountain lane doesn’t dig the dahlias or elephant ears. She just mulches them heavily with pine needles or straw. The spot where we live doesn’t get as cold as it does higher up.

Lane’s grandmother never dug hers and they always came back so lane always follows her example. But if you really are in a cold climate you do need to dig these plants. Put them in a basement or root cellar in saw dust; it works great.

2008-11-11T17:10:00.002-05:00

Last spring lane and I opened up two new levels in lane’s garden area.

She did the usual; added horse manure, compost and lime to make sure the ph was good. Everything went well to make the soil perfect and ready to plant so she did; corn, beans, potatoes and such. Everything she planted came up good so she was satisfied with the results. A few days after the first corn came up lane noticed it was wilting and dying. She was confused and couldn’t figure out what was wrong. The weather wasn’t a factor or any other item she could see. She replanted the corn and again it came up good and so again she was satisfied.

A few days later lane walked thru the rows of corn and noticed that the same thing was happening again just as it had the first time. This got lane to scratching her head because she couldn’t figure it out. Then she happened to notice a small hole right next to where a corn plant had been. It was a vole hole. Then she knew what the problem was. Next thing was to find a solution. So she went to her favorite garden center which is mid town garden center where she works part time and purchased three castor bean plants which are commonly called mole plants. Her ex-husband had given her some gopher purge which is another kind of rodent repellent so she planted both all over her garden.

After a week or so these plants got the problem under control. So she saved seeds so she could have more plants next year. No chemicals involved and they are beautiful plants to look at. Not only do they help with the voles but they add beauty to the landscape.

2008-11-04T16:26:00.002-05:00

Craig/I, her stenographer, finally finished the root cellar/greenhouse. They are wonderful. Since lane had never had either she is very excited about using both of them. She has worked in a greenhouse for the last few years so she kinda knows what to do with the greenhouse and growing up in rural north Carolina as she did, her father always had a tater hole or a large hole dug in the ground. He would put the potatoes in the hole and put layers of hay between the layers of potatoes. Then he would lay boards over the top of the hole and put more hay on top of the boards for insulation. Best as lane can remember this worked pretty good. So remembering what she has learned by watching her father those many years ago she is using the same principle to protect the potatoes from freezing by laying straw in a bin between many layers of potatoes; So far, so good. She has a variety of vegetables in the cellar; sweet potatoes, irish potatoes, onions, pumpkins, butternut squash and some of her canned goods. This year will be an experiment to see how foods last down there. Meanwhile up in the greenhouse she is successfully growing lettuce, basil and strawberries as well as a large number of flowering plants. She plans on adding more plants as she goes along but right now she is just testing the water to see how it all turns out. So far everything is doing well but it hasn’t turned cold and stayed so just yet. Will see what happens then.

2008-11-02T13:34:00.002-05:00

Here it is november already and we are overrun with those pesky little varmints, the ever present ladybug, at least at this time of year.

On these warm sunny days the air is filled with millions of these things.

They are in the house, on the house, car, truck and even the cats and dogs. When will it end lane asks. The only safe place we have found away from them is in the shade of the woods. They don’t like the shade or the coolness. In order for them to terrorize they need warm sun.

Lane says she never thought she would be praying for cold air but she finds that she is.

When you do your laundry, especially the whites the bugs cover them up so you don’t even do laundry anymore. We use a clothes line.

Once these things are attached they don’t want to let go. You can shake them all you want and just when you think, ah, they’re all gone. Wrong. You’ll still find them in your shirt, pants pockets and they bite.

2008-10-28T15:30:00.002-04:00

It’s beautiful here on the mountain. The leaves are changing fast and the snow is blowing hard. It’s also deer season. The deer are everywhere here but thank goodness they aren’t bothering lane’s volunteer collard patch. Yes you heard right, volunteer collards.

Originally lane bought four plants at her favorite garden center, mid-town market, and last fall.

They grew until bambi decided she was hungry so she ate them off. Then lane sprayed them with her secret weapon, liquid fence.

After that she was able to harvest a couple of messes until the hard freeze. She really didn’t think they would amount to anything after that but they did. Come spring here they were again prettier than before. She picked one big mess and then decided to see what would happen if she let them go to seed.

Let me tell you, lane says, they were the prettiest plants when they were in bloom as beautiful yellow flowers with dark green foliage. They bloomed all summer and went to seed in late summer. So here is evidence of her latest science project. A big crop of scrumptious collard greens ready to pick. She says she thinks she will do this again and you can too as its fun to watch and even more fun to eat. This also works well with mustard, kale and turnips.

2008-10-24T11:02:00.001-04:00

Final post in the greenhouse series will be this one about the solar food dryer a friend and I made in his shop. The plan was a sketch emailed by another friend and served as the starter.

The one with the shop and tools and scraps of many sizes of plywood and such, spoke of wanting to do such an item.

It took two of us about ten or so hours. He cut and I assembled. We both painted. The bottom part is divided in half thru the center with old five v crimp roofing painted black. There are holes on one end for air supply with screen inside for insect prevention.

The top is mounted over the other end with full space for heated air to rise. The shelves have vinyl screen held in place in grooves kerfed into the bottom of the frame. The same grooved rubber rope holds the screen in this groove as it does in screen doors.

The top has more holes with screen on the inside for more insect prevention. the front panel slides up or down for access.

2008-10-20T06:51:00.002-04:00

So here is the mostly finished view.

Only paint remaining to be done is lane’s choice of yellow inside and green paint remaining from the house doing the outside.

Can’t see it but the door to the cellar is also second hand. I used a window saved from an old house by another friend and inserted it into the door for some light into the cellar; built a work table for the greenhouse from a saved table top given by another friend.

Soon it shall be lane’s turn to speak about her fall gardening activities. She does become recalcitrant sometimes feeling she has nothing to say, and then discovers she was misinforming herself.

2008-10-15T16:09:00.002-04:00

Friends had a large rock job done at their house but these large beauties got left there afterwards. They were in the way of usual life as they wish to know it so the rocks became ours. Two trips were required as three of them were about three inches by three foot by a bit more than that.

Lane and I have loaded many such large ones but the old hooptie can’t take too much of a load. They were perfect for the stairs.

The door came from another friend; twenty five dollars, pre-hung. Red stain was a left over mistaken choice from another project and the green was left from painting the house.

2008-10-12T07:49:00.001-04:00

So here is the evidence that keeping after something day after day will provide results of some sort. This photo is what those pounding nails have in their minds when they start; some sort of tangible.

The roofing is layered in areas as the source of half price stuff only had so many pieces of the same color. Still works for keeping weather out.

The ridge pieces cost more than the actual roofing so I used cutoffs on one ridge and being layered it still works and saved thirty bucks which, when you have few of them, counts.

The rocks for the stairs came from friends who had had some wondrous landscaping stairs done and these were leftovers; will do a post on those next. The glass was an interesting form of double glaze I had never seen. It appeared that two sheets of glass were joined in some sort of glass welding with a small hole drilled in one corner. That hole had a sort of metal fitting in it giving the impression that after the two sheets were welded together leaving a quarter inch space between the space had been filled with gas or a vacuum formed finished with the fitting/screw.

This was given reinforcement by the one without the fitting that was fully foggy. I used that one in the last hole and the fogginess is clearing somewhat but it being in the center top of the north side, it still serves its function. Living in WVA I learned that using odds and ends is a fine idea. Before attending that school of live I had subscribed to the thing we are all taught in this land that everything has to be done by an expert who has been to the school specializing in this particular task. Thing is that some of these experts even are.

2008-10-08T12:32:00.002-04:00

As you know, ray charles could plainly see, the rough outline of the intended greenhouse is now defined. Next stop is sheeting for the roof and “tar paper”. I stumbled upon a great deal in metal roofing for more than half price only an hour away in Tennessee.

Living in the woods its always lurking somewhere in the hidden recesses of your imagination that a fire could travel thru. No reason to give it asphalt shingles to get a hold on should that be the case.

No glass will be installed until the roof is done so in consideration of the possibility of some thing heavy being dropped, there will be no glass in its path.

2008-10-03T16:00:00.001-04:00

So here is the basic frame; Backfill mostly in place, Styrofoam insulation on the cinder block which was mostly actual cinder block at least fifty years old. Two king posts installed waiting for ridge and rafter install. The glass will be inserted in between the visible two by fours which are in the shape of a T with one perpendicular to the one on the outside of the wall. This is the time when you think you’re almost done as you can see the shape you intend. You are wrong as well at this point as you’re not halfway there. Many items remain to be done but it feels good to get this far.

Lane has planted some green things in the transition wall and the cats now think it was created for them to have a new napping place.

2008-10-01T07:39:00.002-04:00

The challenge was to make the upper story as strong as necessary but also maximize glass area being that this box is to be a greenhouse.

I knew that once it was complete the glass would provide some of the lateral racking resistance but until the glass was installed there would be a tendency for the framing to “list to starboard”. This lack of rack resistance was demonstrated when doing the roof. It would shake in a way you would know that without being strong enough the winds we get here would take it elsewhere. This can be an interesting moment when standing many feet in the air and having the wood beneath you shake like Elvis.

The corners are treated two by eights screwed to two by sixes to give extra strength and also rot resistance being that they are quite close to the masonry. I attached them to the sides of the floor framing instead of putting them on top of the usual bottom plate which I didn’t use. So corners and plates start the outlines of the plan. To help in “squaring” the structure I cut the top plates at a forty five on the corners, knowing that getting them aligned correctly would be my clue that things were square. Doing this without some to hold the other end at all times makes for creating ways to check the diagonals and other usual methods of checking measure and square; Tight forty fives at the meeting ends of such boards gives that indication. I put a second top plate in for several reasons. One was to reinforce the top, especially at the corners, and as it is corbelled, overhung out from the first plate by two inches, to create soffit and finish for exterior roof transition.

I also installed several courses of a leggo like cinder block retaining wall as shown in the photo for transition, finish and protection of the most exposed corner and to add a bit of additional dirt for more insulation.

2008-09-26T16:28:00.002-04:00

Many of the projects on our land are dictated by the available recycled, and sometimes free, materials. In this case beyond the block another friend supplied most of the glass and half of the lumber from “stores”.

So the two by tens for joists were part of the freebies along with the osb to deck and roof it. If not for the two by tens I probably would have used two by eights. In this location, with the possibility of dirt on the uphill side I used more of the six inch blocks to create a bit of a curb on that side. This provided a cantilever on the downhill side.

As this location didn’t allow for full dirt coverage I used Styrofoam insulation on the already parged block with expanded metal lathe over that and parged again.

Ready for backfill.

Ready for the next step in framing.

2008-09-24T16:26:00.003-04:00

With the footer installed next came block laying. This was interesting as I was using several partial blocks. Many of these were of the old three chamber types so this made for ten inch sections. As the entire wall was scheduled for a full parging inside and out this was fine. I interspersed full blocks enough to provide for sufficient strength in any case and also added two pilasters; one uphill to resist pressure there and the other by the door for added strength there. i also used some six inch blocks to create a return at the doorway to assist in keeping dirt back and give a finish detail.

Block laying is like playing with leggos and so can be fun mindless work with ample opportunity to watch the cats or clouds.

The plan was to use foam insulation on the outside with expanded metal lathe over that and another full parging on that. The plan was successful.

2008-09-23T16:28:00.001-04:00

The best location for a root cellar would be fully in a north bank. The addition of a greenhouse above it moves it to the sort of location we chose to be close to the garden and utilize a difficult bank.

A friend had a large pile of used cinder block that in many cases were actually cinder block and not the cement style made these days. They were free for the hauling and cleaning. We got about a quarter of what we needed before someone offered him cash for what remained. Next source were some in trade for some labor. Another source appeared for twenty-five cents a block. We had to purchase the final forty.

The footer was also dug by hand and poured in sections over and under some old sign posts found along the road. The good ole boys push over the sign posts to steal the signs. When the county boys show up with replacement signs they refuse to take the old posts. They make great rebar for this sort of footer.

2008-09-18T16:46:00.002-04:00

Lane is on blog vacation so it’s my turn to write about the cellar-greenhouse project created with her name on it. Photos tell more of the beginning of this project. We have money limits so some of this project was done with means not everyone would understand or do.

The location was a difficult bank to maintain next to the garden. No money for a large yellow digging machine so I became the machine with the exception of at the end. The person who does the road work for our road system was coming up and stopped by to finish removing several stumps I had started digging out. Twenty dollars for ten minutes was reasonable.

The rest of the dirt came out with a pick, shovel and wheelbarrow. Dirt distributed in various places more dirt would help for maintenance or travel. Dimensions of this foundation are eight by sixteen..

2008-09-18T16:46:00.001-04:00

September eighteenth, for most of you who know lane, you know that today is a stressful day for her because on this day two years ago her daughter Jennifer was killed. As you might imagine it’s been quite depressing so to keep herself semi-sane she has attempted to stay as busy as possible. When lane got home from work she went to work in her garden removing worn out cherry tomato plants and their stakes. She replaced them with her favorite fall vegetable; mustard and kale greens. Working in the earth is what lane does to get thru the day sometimes. Gardening is her therapy. When I got home we went to blowing rock and got two large rocks to add to several we got yesterday to use as steps for lanes greenhouse I am building for her. Lane wants to say a special thanks to all you for allowing her to vent, like you would reach thru the computer screen and stop her.

2008-09-15T16:09:00.001-04:00

When lane was a girl growing up in rural North Carolina her family were share croppers. Lane lived on a six hundred acre piece of land and her dad took care of it for a park ranger who lived in Maggie valley. Daddy worked for a dollar a day for this man so you can imagine how poor lane’s family was but she says they didn’t know they were poor cause they always had food on the table and a lot of love. To feed their family of four kids plus mommy and daddy they grew a big garden. Every spring when the ground was warm enough to be planted lane’s daddy hitched up the mules and plowed the garden. It was a welcome sight to us kids says lane cause they knew when this happened that it wouldn’t be long till they had something really good to eat.

The first thing lane’s daddy planted was lettuce, onions and taters. Oh boy, she says, they could hardly wait for the lettuce to grow big enough for them to eat cause there ain’t nothing like that first mess of killed lettuce and onions, pinto beans and corn bread. Of course you had to wash it down with fresh cow’s milk.

This is where lane says she learned to appreciate the value of growing a garden and how important it was and is for our survival. Out of four kids lane says she’s the only one that grows a garden. Neither her brother or her sister knows squat about planting anything. Heck, they don’t even know the difference between a tomato plant and a weed. As lane has told them if you don’t garden you better learn cause foods getting so expensive that you can’t hardly buy it and if you grow your own food you will appreciate it a whole lot more and it will taste a whole lot better too.

2008-09-12T16:52:00.001-04:00

It’s another cloudy day here. No rain, just clouds and high humidity.

Lane tells me she doesn’t know if it’s not being able to see the sun or what but she feels really down in the dumps today. She believes its not being able to see the sun for a while that has her feeling blue.

So to try and get her spirits together she thought she would do our blog. I had asked her earlier if she had a topic today and she told me no. she said she didn’t have her thoughts together and was unable to focus. She thought she would give it a try as talking always makes her feel better so here goes.

She has noticed that all the gardens around here are gone already and the only thing she sees in them now are greens and more greens. The guy she works with at the post office still has some tomatoes in his garden as does lane. She thinks we are the only ones that are that lucky. She still has late squash and a few beans left as well. She has a lot of green tomatoes that aren’t turning so she has been looking for a way to use them. Her friend Kathy at the post office has a friend who has a good recipe for using green tomatoes that her grandmother gave her. So lane has decided to share it with you. The name of the recipe is green tomato sandwich spread. She has heard it’s delicious.

A peck of green tomatoes chopped

A peck of sweet pepper chopped

Twelve large onions chopped and drained

Throw this in a pot and add

Three cups of sugar

A pint of vinegar

Salt to taste and cook until thick

Then add a quart of mayonnaise

A pint of mustard and bring everything to a boil and put in hot jars.

She hasn’t tried it yet but plans to on Monday.

Lane knows you might be sick of hearing about tomatoes so she is searching for another topic. As we are covered with tomatoes it may take a while to discover that topic.

2008-09-11T15:11:00.001-04:00

This was originally intended to be posted last week however on Wednesday I cut my hand bad enough that it still keeps me from full work. Then to add insult to injury, as they say, I had the opportunity to do a total reinstall including full format of disk on Thursday. This kept me full till Friday and then on Saturday I discovered two Trojans. After solving this on Sunday I found another. This was followed by loss of telephone privileges on Tuesday after the most energetic thunderstorm I have ever experienced right over our head most of the night. We finally got the phone back yesterday evening so here is lane’s post.

Last night here on the mountain we had a horrific storm. She is referring to the one on Tuesday; One of the worst, if not the worst, electrical storm in her memory. The storm started around ten forty pm and lasted till after two am. The storm would go away and then it would come right back again. It kept going around in circles for a very long time. It seems like it came back a little harder each time it returned; Lots of thunder which was very loud and even more lightening. There was a lot of popping and cracking in the house. It was scary, she tells us. It knocked out the phone and lane is hopeful that’s all that was lost; so far, so good. The storm left two and three quarters of much needed rainfall. It will probably finish off what’s left of the tomatoes. They were severely damaged by the rain we go a couple of weeks ago from hurricane Fay. We got nine inches from that. Can’t have everything is her guess. Its either tomatoes or rain and she’s had lots of maters and now lane’s happy for all the rain.

2008-09-06T16:54:00.001-04:00

Here it is September already. Where does the time go? Seems like only a short time ago that lane was getting her garden ready to plant. Now the garden plants are on their last legs. Summer is going to be gone before we know what hit us. Autumn starts September twenty second and then its no time to winter but lane says she won’t complain cause she’s been blessed this year with an abundance of everything it seems. Here is an example of her garden bounty. So far lane has canned; fifty quarts of tomatoes, twelve quarts of tomato juice, thirty pints of salsa, twelve quarts of spaghetti sauce, thirty eight pints of squash relish, fifteen pints of pickled beets, twenty one pints of applesauce and seven pints of peach jam. Lane says she’s also given away at least two bushels of tomatoes along with squash, zucchini, cucumbers, green beans, corn and cabbage. It truly has been a good summer and now its time for lane to rest for a while before the fall crops come in. oh well, here we go again. Thank goodness says lane.

2008-09-01T16:01:00.001-04:00

If you have deer in your garden and they’re eating everything in sight cause all the green stuff in the woods that they usually eat is gone, and you can’t seem to keep them away, lane says she has something to tell you about. But first she wants to tell you a short story about me and the deer and why lane wanted to find a fool proof solution to keep deer away. A few years back lane happened to look out the window and saw bambi munching away in the garden. The garden being not twenty feet from the house it was a surprise to see bambi there. Lane called me to look and sure enough bambi was having lunch and lane was upset. So I decided to scare her away by shooting at her; the first shot scared bambi across the road. The second shot I aimed at her ear and shot her right between the eyes instead, with a twenty-two. Bambi fell over where she stood. Lane thinks it scared both of us pretty good, though I disagree. We called some neighbors who needed some venison and they came and got it. I still think the Kroger is more convenient. That’s when we knew we needed some other way to keep bambi out of the garden.

Some time later I was visiting our friend jack and he told us about liquid fence deer and rabbit repellent.

We got some and it really works. It’s guaranteed by the company that makes it. What lane likes is that you can spray it directly on your plants be it vegetable or flower and deer will not touch them. That’s a really good thing because lane doesn’t have to deal with unwanted dead bambi.

2008-08-27T17:25:00.002-04:00

The rain is about over lane tells me she fears. She won’t complain as we need all of the rain we can get. Here on our mountain we were lucky enough to get eight inches of rain. Some people got more and some got less she was told. Ferguson folk had around nine inches. Leatherwood had about the same. Elk creek was really flowing this morning and a wonderful sight it was. Since lane can’t get in the garden to gather any produce because of the weather she has no gardening news to report. So lane thought she would tell you of a few don’ts that her mother and grandmother used to tell the girls when they were growing up.

Don’t try to put up any canning when it’s wet and rainy cause it won’t seal properly. Lane knows this to be true because a friend at the post office canned some salsa yesterday and it didn’t seal. She wanted to know why so lane told her the old story.

When having your monthly don’t go near the garden cause the vines will surely die and please don’t walk in the tomato patch cause they will surely rot, said lanes mother. These two are totally wrong because lane found out herself when she started gardening. She didn’t have time to pay attention to the old tales. She found out that is was nothing more than an old wives tale, which is of course where she heard it.

Funny how we’ve been influenced by the foolishness we’ve been taught.

2008-08-25T13:32:00.001-04:00

When lane was growing up in the Yadkin valley area the end of summer was a busy time as she remembers. Every bit of farming that was done was done by horse power. She means the four legged variety. Lane’s father plowed, disked, and planted with either horses or mules. When it was time for the potatoes to be harvested daddy would hitch up the team to his turning plow and uncover the potatoes. It was the responsibility of the kids to pick up the good potatoes and separate the bad ones. The bad ones were to be eaten first as they wouldn’t keep in the tater tunnel; same thing for the sweet taters also. Lane and her family looked forward to this time of year because they got something different to eat besides the same old beans and corn bread as usual. Yes fall was and is a glorious time for great food. The pumpkins had to be brought in before the first frost and that always meant pumpkin pie which was a treat because they only got such things at thanksgiving and Christmas. Remembering her childhood as she does it gives lane a great appreciation for having an easier time with the harvest than her parents did. Thank goodness for modern tools and equipment. the photo is the house lane grew up in and still standing, sorta.

2008-08-22T16:47:00.002-04:00

Even though this is mid-august we still have time to plant a few things that can still make themselves before frost such as carrots, onions, lettuce, spinach and even snap beans. In order for these to be able to mature you need to get them in the ground now.

Best days for planting lettuce and spinach are the twenty seventh and eighth. Best time for carrots and onions are the twenty seventh thru the thirty first.

Now is when lane orders all her bulbs for spring blooms. They need to be planted no later than mid-October so that their root systems can form before the ground freezes. Some good bulbs to order, and lane’s personal favorites are, tulips, daffodils, some lilies and of course hyacinths. Bone meal should be added to the soil when planting these bulbs. Bone meal will feed the bulb all winter so it can flower next spring.

2008-08-20T15:43:00.003-04:00

Composting is a very useful thing to do and have.

Lane says composting is the best thing you can ever do for your garden and yourself. Compost is rich in nutrients so it helps enrich your soil.

If you use compost in your soil you will have very healthy vigorous plants that don’t need chemical fertilizer. We use no chemicals and haven’t for years, ceptin this spring when there were some black bugs in the yellow squash. Lane used some seven which remained from years past. Next time we will use diatomaceous earth.

Lane uses only compost and believes, if you can see the details of the pictures we have posted of the garden, it makes for wondrous plants.

Lane makes her compost by first choosing a spot close to the garden. We have two piles. One is the in process pile and the other is the one for current use. Lanes are woven wire enclosures which we have woven old skis into to keep the material in its place. Start by throwing any kind of green plant material, rotten or not. Old manure works well as a base and source of bacteria to keep the pile working. Lane turns hers once a month.

Any thing goes into it other than diseased plants, animal products or bread products. Leaves, yard waste, weeds, wood ash, straw, and other such items you find in need of a home.

You know it’s ready to use when it looks like dark soil. Usually about twelve weeks or so will start to produce what you want. Lane tells me that’s all she knows of. If you have anything to add and wish to start a forum we can do so in the right hand column under the participate heading or speak to the wish in the comments section and we will do what we can to make it available.

2008-08-19T17:00:00.002-04:00

The tomatoes are sadly coming to an end, but you heard this the other day as well. They have been wonderful to have. Lane believes this is her best tomato year ever. She has canned juice, salsa, and tomatoes, eaten many sandwiches and given many away and there are still more green ones on the vine left to get ripe. For lane no tomato season would be worthwhile without a big batch of spaghetti sauce. She believes it to be much better than you can get in a store. But we have our various beliefs on this one. I prefer the marina recipe given to me by Matello Zuccilini several years ago.

Here is Lane’s;

Half bushel of tomatoes peeled and cut.

Three pounds of onions peeled and cut.

Two green sweet peppers chopped and deseeded.

Two hot peppers chopped and seeded.

Two large garlic cloves minced.

Blend together the above and cook for an hour and then add;

Two tsp basil

Two tsp oregano

Two tbl parlsey

Eight six oz cans tomato paste.

Half cup sugar

Six bay leaves

Half cup canning salt

Cook for an additional hour

Put into hot jars or it can be frozen in bags.

That’s it.

2008-08-15T16:24:00.002-04:00

Squash is one of lanes favorite vegetables. It is very versatile. You can use it baked, grilled, pickled, raw in salad or stuffed, just to name a few. If you are lucky enough to still be harvesting squash be it yellow or green, here is a fantastic recipe for using up that extra squash;

Squash casserole;

Seven cups sliced squash

Half cup chopped onion

One can cream of chicken soup

One eight oz container sour cream

One cup shredded carrots

One eight ounce herb season stuffing mix

Fourth cup melted butter

In a sauce pan cook squash, onions and carrots and two cups of water and one half tsp salt. Cook uncovered for five minutes and stir once.

Drain.

In a bowl combine the soup, sour cream and fold in the squash mixture.

Put in a twelve by seven and a half by two inch baking dish. On the top put the stuffing mix. Bake uncovered in a three fifty oven for thirty minutes or so.

You can use cream of celery soup if you prefer to avoid the cream of chicken stuff.

2008-08-14T17:18:00.001-04:00

We’ve talked a lot about tomatoes already but lane wanted to share this story with you and ask for your help in identifying this tomato. For a number of years a friend of lanes from elk creek in the Darby community has given her tomato plants that have been around this area for a long time. This is the story her friend Harold told her; thirty or forty years ago an old woman lived way up on the end of Darby in an old house by herself. When she moved away a tomato plant came up by the house where she lived. Lane’s friend pulled up the plant and took it home where he set it out in his garden. He has saved the seed all these years because the tomato is so good. No one seems to know what kind of tomato it is. The plant produces good large firm sweet juicy tomatoes. This is truly an heirloom tomato. If you think you know what kind it is please let lane know. We call the tomato, in this area, the Alice Hodge tomato cause that was the old lady’s name.

2008-08-13T16:58:00.001-04:00

Its time to get those greens planted.

August is a good month to do this according to the almanac. The best days to plant mustard, kale and such is the fourteenth and fifteenth. The best time to plant turnips is the eighteenth, nineteenth, twenty second, twenty seventh and twenty eighth. Sow the seeds thickly in beds or rows of finely pulverized soil; Water well in dry weather to speed germination and weekly in dry times to keep them growing after they come up.

Plant seeds about three quarters of an inch apart in hot, dry or windy conditions it’s good to use a row cover until the seeds germinate.

When ready to harvest use a sharp knife or your fingers to cut plants back within a half inch so they will grow back and give you more.

Old people planted turnips and cabbage in September. Some people plant multiplying onions now also. Collard greens need to be planted now also. Old folks say collard greens aren’t much good till the frost bites them which make them better.

When cooking greens wash them real good, put them in a big pot, cover them with water and put in a piece of fat back. Cook this till tender. Drain the water and have some pork grease in a big cast iron skillet. Add the drained greens; slow fry them so they won’t scorch till they’re good and tender. Add vinegar to taste. Have some corn bread baked and ready plus a pot of pinto beans and it’s a meal from heaven.

2008-08-12T16:27:00.001-04:00

Today lane decided to make tomato juice. She hadn’t made juice in many years so it took some research. She found it difficult to find answers to her many questions.

Such as how do I do this? How many tomatoes do I need? She looked in a lot of cookbooks but couldn’t find what she was looking for. She finally found all she needed to know in a book titled; ball blue book of preserving.

Here’s what she found; about twenty pounds of tomatoes that are firm and ripe. Wash quarter or half and remove the core. Add the cut tomatoes to a large sauce pan and bring to a boil. Then reduce to a simmer for about twenty minutes or until the tomatoes are soft. Put the result thru a food mill to remove the seeds and skins. Bring the juice back to a boil and add a TBL of lemon juice for each quart. Reduce heat to simmer and do so for about twenty minutes again. Then ladle into hot jars and seal.

Here’s a variation; you can use fresh herbs to season the juice such as dill, parsley or basil. Add to juice in the last five minutes of cooking and then remove the herbs before canning. A useful way to do that is to put the herbs in a piece of cheesecloth tied into a bag.

Fresh herbs may be canned with the juice but the flavor will become stronger over time. You can season the juice with sugar, spices or hot sauce.

2008-08-11T17:19:00.001-04:00

Rain barrels are easy to make and to use.

When lane grew up in the sixties and seventies she remembers how important every drop of water was to the family’s garden from which they, in large part, depended upon for eating. Her grandmother would set her wash tubs under the drips of the house to catch all the water she could so they wouldn’t have to carry the water from the creek.

We/lanes family had no well and only a spring. You didn’t use spring water for watering plants as it was sometimes limited in quantity. They depended on god to supply rain so when it didn’t rain there was water in the wash tubs to water the garden. So lane learned early in life that every drop of water matters. So now lane has her own garden to care for she has two rain barrels with one on each end of the house. There is a spigot in the bottom of the barrel so it’s easy to use. Lane says “believe me it’s easier than carrying water from the creek”.

We used five gallon buckets until random chance brought us two fifty five gallon plastic ones. I used pieces of wire lath for screenage to keep out leaves or other unwished for items. Lowe’s supplied plumbing parts; a lever operated gate valve with washer and nut for attaching to the barrel. I drilled the appropriate sized hole, put the washer on the outside with silicone caulk and did the same on the inside including the caulk. No leaks, no leaves and the cats sleep on the screenage.

In WVA we called water we carried “walking water” when our running water from the well or spring went dry. As lane says rain water in a barrel is much easier than walking water.

2008-08-10T14:36:00.002-04:00

The tomatoes are slowly coming to an end. Some ways this is good and some it’s a bad thing.

The good is Lane can finally get out of the kitchen for a while.

She has put away quite a few fruits and veggies this year.

The bad thing is after the tomatoes are gone there won’t be anymore really good ones again until next summer. To prolong our harvest when I know its gonna frost she gathers all the unblemished mature green tomatoes, wrap them in newspaper, put them in a box and put them in the root cellar I am currently building. They need to be checked once a week to see if any have started to ripen; If so then its time to set them out on the counter to finish ripening. This way you can have garden tomatoes at thanksgiving and sometimes until Christmas. Or you can pull out the entire plant, hang it upside down in the cellar (cool place) until they ripen. Try it.

The next item to do in the garden is plant greens at the end of august or beginning of September depending upon what the almanac projects.

2008-08-08T17:40:00.003-04:00

Its time to start thinking about what tomato seeds to save. First you decide which fruits you enjoy most. Then pick out the one that looks like the one you want next time you plant.

Saving tomato seeds is really pretty easy and fun as well.

There are many different ways to do this but lane uses the method she learned from her mother and grandmother.

Start by slicing or quartering the tomato. If you don’t want to eat the tomato you can squeeze the seeds out or slice it if you want to use it.

Use a spoon to remove the seeds and put them in a cup of warm water.

Next day the seeds will be in the bottom of the cup and the pulp will have floated to the top.

Place your hand over the cup to allow the pulp and water to escape thru your fingers. This way the seeds are clean.

Put the seeds on a plate or a wire screen and allow to dry for about a month in a warm window but not in direct sun.

After the seeds dry scrape them off of the plate with a butter knife and place them in an envelope and seal. Label this envelope so you know what you put inside. Put in a plastic container and then in the freezer.

In the freezer they last longer but its not essential for saving the seed.

In this photo you see lane working in her garden. in the background is a sheet over the Alice Hodge tomatoes as they were getting sunburn to the point of blistering. The sheet has stopped the problem.

2008-08-07T16:53:00.001-04:00

Hi, had an abundance of tomatoes this year. At one time there were over two hundred tomatoes lying on our dining table. Why so many you might ask.

We love tomatoes; in salsa, juice, stewed, frozen, marinara or a tomato sandwich with lots of mayo, or cut up with salt. Lane also grows them to give to friends who don’t have the time to grow them for themselves.

Lane grows several different varieties of tomatoes here with heirloom tomatoes being her favorite because they have more flavors and are more disease resistant than hybrids. We grow them organically with composted horse manure.

Here are some of our favorites; Brandywine is an Amish tomato that comes in yellow, red, pink and purple. It’s got a great tomato taste full of flavor and not too acidic.

Mr. stripy is pale yellow with red streaks running thru the tomato. Its flavor is delicate and is low acid while being sweet and makes a good mater sandwich. Many of our friends ask for this one before the others.

Lanes latest favorite is an old heirloom called Cherokee purple which is a large beefy type with a sweet tart taste. The color is dark and some have thought it to be overripe when getting one. Some have compared this to a zinfandel wine. We love it.

The great thing about all these tomatoes that lanes has spoken about is that you save the seed and plant them again next year with out giving any cash to those criminal corporations.

2008-08-06T16:26:00.002-04:00

Twenty years ago a lady on lane’s mail route named toad gave her a jar of this relish for Christmas.

Lane liked it so much she asked for the recipe and a month later it was hers.

So here it is, by popular demand, the way it was given to lane, ceptin’ she abbreviated.

Squash relish

Chop ten cups squash and four cups onions.

Add 4tbsp salt

Mix and let stand overnight.

Wash and drain the next day.

Add two pods hot pepper

Three pods sweet pepper

Two and a half cups vinegar

Four cups sugar

One tsp dry mustard seed

One tsp celery seed and

One tsp turmeric

Bring it to a boil and simmer for thirty minutes.

Add two tsp corn starch mixed in a quarter cup of warm water.

Cook for five more minutes, fill jars and seal.

You can add a carrot for color should you choose.

2008-08-05T16:01:00.002-04:00

Hi and welcome to our oasis says lane. I will be her stenographer.

Today has been a hot day here in the North Carolina Mountains.

Just because it’s hot doesn’t mean the work stops.

Far from it; for example my day began at five twenty am.

Get up time six days a week. Lane works as a highway contractor for the post office. Gotta start early. Bath and then feed the cats, as we have seven of them. Two dogs and a husband. Then it’s off to the post office. It takes thirty five minutes to get there. Lane works four hours more or less and then comes home to do real work.

Today is relish making day. Lane waits all summer for this.

All the vegetables are mature and ready to be made into her wonderful relish. It takes most of the day to chop and cook everything, but it’s worth it to see all the happy faces when her friends get this relish as gifts. Over the years she has given away more of this stuff than anything else she does.

Every person she gives it to wants more and then more so she makes more.

She says I have been hard at work too building her greenhouse. Most everything is recycled materials donated from friends who also reap the benefits of her having a greenhouse. She says “well gotta go as the relish is ready to can or process as you city folk call it.

She just came back finished with the relish having canned twenty four pints. Now is clean up time and she never wastes anything if she can help it. All the waste from vegetables goes into the compost which helps make next years crop possible. Everything she grows here is organic which is so much better for your health. Believe me it’s not hard to do this as she says if she can, you can. It’s what she does for stress relief and her testimony is that it really works. She is ready and willing to share her methods.