Monica | The Newest Vegetable

Asheville Adventure: Part One

Posted on April 24, 2013 by Monica

For Spring Break, Jeremy and I ventured down to Asheville, North Carolina. First we stopped outside Charlotte to visit some family. Then we headed into the Smoky Mountains for a night of camping before exploring the city.

We spent the night at the Cataloochee campground, part of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. What is really great about camping in the national park is that you don’t have all the “attractions” of a typical campgound and RV park. There weren’t electrical and sewer hook-ups for the RVs and campers. There was no “snack shop” or pool or mini-golf – just the wilderness. Thankfully though, there were flush toilets and a pump for fresh drinking water.

The Cataloochee campground is in a valley. To get there, you have to pass over a mountain. The mountain road winds up one side of the mountain and then back down the other side into the valley. Above is the best photo I could safely get while Jeremy was driving the winding roads. At the base of both side of the mountain, the road was paved, but as you approached the top it was a gravel and packed dirt road. Thankfully our little car handled it well, and Jeremy is a great driver.

We selected and reserved our campsite through recreation.gov. It was the same process as booking a hotel online – we could see the available dates and spaces. We booked the spot online, and it gave us a confirmation number. When we arrived at the campground, there is sort of a self check-in. There was an information board with a map of the campsites, and check-in cards to be placed on the numbered post of your campsite. There was no park ranger to check us in, we just put of name and confirmation number on the card and posted it. Later in the evening, two rangers came by and checked everyone’s cards.

This is the view of our campsite from the tent. The space is plenty large, and complete with a picnic table and fit pit. To the right of our car you can see the big, brown, bear-proof trashcans. Thankfully, there were no bear sightings, although we did see some elk.

Okay, so as you can see from our campsite photos, there was a level gravel bed for the tent, and then a large gravel area with the picnic table, fire pit and parking. Beyond our car you can see other campers. The campground had an outer loop and a group of campsites on the middle. We were on the outer loop.

That’s what it looked like behind our campsite. You can see the little creek that eventually winds around the campground and empties into a much larger creek. The larger creek could be heard from our campsite, and at night it sounded like the ocean. It was beautiful.

Eventually we got our fire going (thanks to some assistance from the campers next door) and roasted some vegan hot dogs. We snacked on some Girl Scout cookies and ended up turning in early, mostly in an effort to keep warm.

The tent is supposed to be a 3 person tent, but I don’t see how another person would fit. Our sleeping bags are Coleman brand, and they kept us plenty warm through the night. I have a camping mat, and was reasonably padded and comfortable. Jeremy slept on top of the gravel. He is going to get a mat before our next camping trip.

When we awoke the next morning, we ate a quick breakfast of granola bars and clementines, packed up our campsite and headed down the road to the hiking trails. It was 35 degrees.

We parked our car at the head of the trail, and started heading up into the mountains. We passed the horse camp and a mile later reached this sign. I think we accomplished Little Cataloochee, but after this sign there weren’t any more.

Most of the trail looked like this. No signs, but a well-worn path through the woods. It twisted and turned, up and down the mountains.

The trail followed along side the creek, so sometimes the trail looked like this. Jeremy was wearing waterproof boots and was able to traverse these sections easily. I was just wearing my sneakers, so I tried to creatively cross the water without getting too wet. Most of the time there were large rocks or logs that I could step on to safely cross.

We had fun hiking in the mountains, we probably traversed 8 miles in total. After we finished our walk through the woods we headed back over the mountains and into downtown Asheville. Overall, it was a good night of camping. It was our first time pitching a tent alone. We made some mistakes (no flashlight, campfire troubles, etc) but definitely want to give it another try. Once it gets warmer we want to camp a few nights at a national park closer to home.

Anyone else have good camping advice and experience? Details of our downtown Asheville experience coming soon!

Our Raised Bed Garden

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Monica

As I mention in our last post, Jeremy and I are going to try our hands at gardening again. A few Springs ago, we tried planting a garden in our back yard. We planted some string peas (seeds) and some onion bulbs and tomatoes (seedlings). We tilled up the ground in our yard, tended to the weeds and watered the garden (when we remembered). In the end we harvested a handful of peas and a few small tomatoes. I was very discouraged and did not want to try again.

I have been inspired by my Aunt Michelle to try a raised bed garden. She has the most beautiful vegetable garden I have ever seen, and it’s very prolific (I wish I had a photo). Jeremy and I consulted her, and online articles, in planning our raised bed garden. We knew we wanted to not only relocate our garden, but use raised beds so that we can control the soil. The soil in our yard is rather sandy, with some clay and larger rocks.

Naturally, the beds have to be made of a material that can withstand the outdoors. We wanted to go with cedar, because it is naturally rot/mold resistant. Others may choose cement pavers, or plastic. I would not recommend pressure treated wood. Although it has been treated to survive the outdoors, it may leach chemicals into the soil and subsequently into your food.

We decided to get three of Greene’s two-tiered raised garden beds. We purchased our’s at a nearby Home Depot for a total of $254.31 (with tax). We ended up purchasing kits instead of building beds ourselves because there are no lumber yards within 30 minutes of our home that sell cedar boards and posts non-commercially. Plus, unless we could cut the boards at the store/yard, they’re not going to fit in our car. The kits were really easy to put together – the boards just slide into the corner posts. Jeremy had all three beds put together in under an hour. If you are interested in building your own raised beds, I found this article quite informative.

As you can see in the photo, the raised beds are in the side-yard, to the right of our drive-way. We chose this location for our garden because it gets the most sunlight. Our house faces east, so our back yard is shaded by the shadow of our house for most of the day. Plus, the garden is a lot harder to ignore in this new location. Thankfully we don’t have an HOA, so no one can complain about this (potential) eyesore.

After you have the beds leveled and settled, you need to prevent grass and weeds from growing. There wasn’t much grass growing in this region, so I didn’t bother tearing it all up. I laid overlapping pieces of burlap in the bottom of each bed. We chose burlap because it is natural and will eventually biodegrade, unlike the typical black landscaping cloths. Others recommended newspaper, which will also break down, but we were concerned about the inks and possible chemicals in the paper. Home Depot sold the burlap for $12 per 3ft by 24 ft roll (we got two). If you are concerned about burrowing animals, then you should lay some sort of wire mesh/screen in the bottom of the beds.

After lining the beds, it’s time to fill them with dirt! The soil is the most important part of the growing. We visited a local garden center and they recommend Leafgro. Leafgro is pretty much just composted yard clippings. The guy at the garden center said that Leafgro is rich in nutrients and would be good for our vegetable garden.

The problem? By my calculations, we needed 72 square feet of soil for our raised beds. The garden center sells Leafgro in 1 sq ft bags, or you can get it delivered in bulk. It would take me several trips to the store to haul all 72 bags of soil home in my car. And at $5 a bag, plus tax, it would be $381.60. The problem with bulk is that the minimum delivery was 4 cubic yards, and we only needed 2.7 cu yds. The cost was a winner though, even though it was way more dirt and we had to pay for delivery, the total was only $161.76. So a few days later our driveway was full of dirt (as pictured above).

Here are the raised beds full of soil! I lasagna-layered the Leafgro, dried leaves and our compost into the beds. We don’t have a wheelbarrow, so we used shovels and a 5-gallon bucket to haul the dirt. Luckily the garden is close to the driveway.

Even then, we still had a hug pile of dirt in our yard. We decided we would use the dirt to re-pot the cactus and spikey plant (I think it might be a yucca).

We got two super cool repurposed wine barrels for $30 at Home Depot. I really love how they look on our porch.

Both the cactus and the spikey plant have been transplanted from my Step Dad’s home in southern NC. Nevertheless, these plants don’t mind the cold, snowy weather in MD.

In the background of the spikey plant’s close-up, you can see the other use we made of the leafgro: mulch. We used the leafgro like mulch around all the raspberries, trees and bushes that we “landscaped” last year.

It took two weeks, but we were finally able to use almost all of the dirt in our yard. We used it to fill in holes, dips and soft spots. We have some dirt saved up in case we need to level out the yard some more, or for potting plants.

Later we’ll share how we are arranging our crops in the raised beds. One of the benefits of raised beds is that you can grow plants closer together than in a traditional garden.

Who else has readied their garden? Anyone with raised-bed experience?

Garden Plans and Little Seedlings

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Monica

A few springs ago (I think 2010) we tried to make a vegetable garden in our backyard. The area did not get enough light, or enough watering/weeding attention from us. We harvested a few peas and tomatoes, but overall it was a wash. This year we are going to try our hand at vegetable gardening again. We plan on building/buying raised cedar beds and planting our garden in our side yard, where there is much more daylight (more about how awesome raised beds are later). We are also going to do our seeds differently…

For Christmas 2012 Jeremy got us the heirloom seed “time capsule” from UrbanFarm, a kickstarter project. Jeremy chose the UrbanFarm survival capsule, with 25 heirloom seed varieties: Homesteader Tomato, California Wonder Bell Pepper, Bloomsdale Spinach, Brunswick Cabbage, Bush Blue Bean, Calabrese Brocolli, Zucchini, Dark Red Beet, Eggplant, Golden Batam Corn, Green Arrow Pea, Honeydew Melon, Cantaloupe, Jalapeno, Leaf Blend Lettuce, Asparagus, National Pickle Cucumber, Roma Tomato, Small Sugar Pumpkin, Straightneck Summer Squash, Snap Peas, Banana Pepper, Tendersweet Carrot, Utah Celery, and Yellow Sweet Onion. What is so great about these heirloom seeds is that we will be able to harvest seeds from our crops. This means that for all following years we won’t need to buy seeds for all those vegetables. The UrbanFarm capsule came complete with planting and harvesting instructions.

Many of the vegetables needed to be started indoors before being planted outside. We chose to use plastic trays so that they could be used multiple times, unlike the biodegradable ones that you can plant in the ground with the seedling. We liked this particular tray because it fits a lot of seedlings (72), and the packaging convinced us that its elongated cells are better for root development.

I used the Jiffy brand organic seed starting soil. I used an unsharpened pencil to poke a hole in each cell, and then I sprinkled 3 to 4 seeds in each hole. After planting all the seeds, I watered the trays. These three trays hold the tomatoes, the peppers, cabbage, lettuce spinach, eggplant, broccoli, celery and onion.

The trays come with clear plastic lids that make them like a mini greenhouse. I wrote the names of each vegetable and number of rows planted on the lids. The lids are supposed to stay on until all the cells have sprouts. During this time the seedlings should be kept warm but not in direct sunlight.

After a week we had broccoli sprouts, followed by the cabbage, spinach, tomatoes and onions. Once all the seeds have sprouted, then you should remove the lid and place seedlings in a location with lots of light. Since there were a few cells in each tray that had not yet sprouted, we propped the lids open. This allowed for more air for the growing seedlings, but still offered protection.

Then we went on vacation for a week…

The good news is that the seedlings didn’t die. Bad news is that the celery, eggplant and various peppers have not yet sprouted, but keeping the lids on is no longer an option.

The sprouts are all long and spindly. This is because the have stretched themselves to reach the light. We decided to move the trays out of the kitchen (warm and indirect light) to the opening between the living room and dining room. This spot gets light all day through the large window in the living room and the sliding glass doors of the dining room.

As it gets closer to transplant time (when the threat of frost has passed) the seedlings will spend their days outside to “harden off”. You gradually bring the seedlings outside, to help them acclimate, before planting them. We’re hoping that with the new, sunnier location the sprouts will grow stronger and less spindly. Then they will be ready to live outside.

Are you planting any veggies? Tips or tricks you want to share?

Preparing the Raspberries

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Monica

After our harvest of raspberries last fall, we did nothing…

As the weather got colder, the raspberry canes went dormant. They lost their leaves and the parts that bore fruit dried up.

Here’s a close up of a cane that fruited last season. These withered canes adorned our front porch all winter because I wasn’t really sure if and when I was supposed to prune them.

Jeremy found this video from the University of Maine. I found it to be very helpful. Now, Mr. Handley’s raspberry operation is clearly a lot larger than mine, but I followed his instructions nonetheless.

1. Mr. Handley says that he likes to wait until late winter/early spring to prune his raspberries. This way the spent flora canes are sending nutrients back to the roots during the winter. This was great news for us, since we waited until March to tackle pruning.

2. Remove all spent flora canes. These are the canes that produced fruit last year but will not bear fruit in the upcoming season. In the video, he identifies these canes by their grey, brittle appearance. In my case I did not have full canes that fit that description. Instead I just removed the dead parts – like the withered parts I captured in my close-up. Since our raspberries are heritage and produce fruit twice a year, I think these same canes may bear fruit two seasons in a row.

3. Attach healthy canes to the trellis. Create a “V” shape with the canes, allowing for maximum sun exposure for all canes. Like in the video, I used some hemp thread to tie my canes to the trellis. I fashioned my trellis out of twine and wooden stakes – less sophisticated than Mr. Handley’s metal and wire trellis. I tightened up the sagging twine of my trellis before attaching the canes.

The improvement is subtle on film, more noticeable in person. The canes are stripped of their dead parts, all standing upright with the help of the trellis. Next step is to clean up the bed – clear out the leaves, pull any weeds and re-mulch.

There are buds and a few green leaves already on the raspberry canes. We are super excited about two harvests of raspberries this year. We might even celebrate with a raspberry-chocolate stout.

What spring pruning are you doing? I am ready for the Azaleas to bloom!

Mama’s Got a Brand New Bag

Posted on March 15, 2013 by Monica

Well, that depends on how you think of it.

I had this old pair of capris that I wanted to do something with. I love the fabric, and they are in great condition, but they were a few sizes too big for me. They were my grandmother’s. I thought about tailoring them to fit me, but I don’t know much about pants, and that would involve a lot of deconstructing. Instead, I decided I could use a new purse.

First I cut the legs off, as close to the crotch as possible. One leg will be the outside of the bag, the other leg the liner. I took the liner leg and took in the side seams 1/4 inch, to help it better fit inside of the other leg.

On the liner leg I attached a zipper pocket. I like a zipper pocket for holding my phone and chapstick inside my bag. The zipper was one that Jeremy removed from an old duffel bag he deconstructed and disposed off. I used half of the one pictured.

To make the pocket, I used my typical zipper pocket tricks (as seen here). I first attached one side of the zipper to a rectangle of fabric (cut from the butt of the capris). Then I attached the other side of the zipper to the liner leg. Usually these pockets are formed by being sewn into the seams of the bag, but in this case the side seams were already closed. I just stitched around the perimeter of the fabric with a strong zig-zag stitch. To hide the ends on the zipper I folded over a small rectangle of fabric and stitched its perimeter. You can see how unattractive the uncovered right end of the zipper looks.

I cut these two rectangles for the bottom of the bag – grey vinyl for the exterior and capris for the interior. To determine the size of the bottom (3″ x 14″) I held open the wide end of the leg by the side seams, in a rectangular shape and measured the opening.

Here is the exterior of the bag. The open end of the bag is the ankle of the pant leg. I cut off approximately 4 inches of the open end.

The strap of the purse is also a reuse. It’s a black corduroy strap that buckles on both ends. It was on the bag I was previously using. I damaged that bag pretty bad, so I figured I would at least rescue the strap for this new purse.

The installation of the strap is pretty easy, all I have to do is attach the two buckles. I inserted the lining into the exterior of the bag (wrong sides together). I folded down the tops of both fabrics, and inserted the buckles between their folds. I then stitched along the end of the fold.

Here is an installed buckle. It’s difficult to see the stitching, because I used grey thread.

Here’s the finished bag! It’s a little strange shaped, but I like the overall look.

This project was fun because it challenged me to reuse as much as I could. Also, it is a different approach than I usually take when making bags. I normally attach the lining to the exterior of the bag and end up turning the whole thing right-side out through a little hole in the bottom of the lining at the end. This time I just inserted the finished lining into the exterior of the bag.

Anyone else working with unusual materials? Trying old projects a new way?

Almond Meal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Posted on March 11, 2013 by Monica

Since receiving the Soyajoy Alternative Milk Machine for Christmas, Jeremy and I have been making our own almond milk. The byproduct of the almond milk is soggy almond meal. I have been experimenting with the almond meal – attempting to make ”meat”balls and substituting it for flour in baking. I found this recipe for chocolate chip cookies and I am pleased with the results. I chose this recipe because unlike most almond flour/meal recipes, it’s not full of vegan substitutes (which I don’t usually have on hand).

Ingredients:

1.5 cups almond meal
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

2. Prepare almond meal. In the original recipe, the author blends almonds in a food processor to make the flour. I made a batch of almond milk in the Soyajoy. I used 3/4 c almonds (after soaking for several hours) and filled the water line to the minimum. After separating the almond meal from the milk, I dried the almond meal in a glass dish in the preheated oven. I left the almond meal in the oven for about 10 minutes, checking on it and stirring it occasionally.

3. Mix the butter and sugar together until smooth. Beat in the egg until blended.

4. Add the dried (yet warm) almond meal, then the rest of the ingredients. Mix until combined.

5. Spoon onto cookie sheet. I did not use parchment paper (as suggested), instead I lowered the temperature from the original recipe.

6. Bake for 12 – 15 minutes. Makes 1 dozen cookies.

The beauty of this recipe? It used all the almond meal left over from the almond milk. The sad part? Only twelve cookies! After letting the cookies cool slightly, Jeremy and I tasted them. They were perfect – firm and a little golden on the outside, warm and moist on the inside.

You might be able to tell from the photo, but the cookies have a gritty appearance. The Soyajoy does not blend the almonds as finely as a food processor would. The cookies did not taste gritty, but had the perfect texture for chocolate chip cookies.

Anyone else experimenting? Have some delicious almond meal recipes to share?

Dishwasher Dreams Come True

Posted on March 6, 2013 by Monica

Ever since we moved into our house in July 2009, I have been dreaming of a new dishwasher. The one in our house was ugly, loud and didn’t do a great job cleaning the dishes.

Our friends have the same dishwasher in their house, and have the same complaints. In the photo above, the kick panel is missing because (spoiler alert!) it was right before we uninstalled it. That yellow thing under the dishwasher is a piece of fiberglass insulation. I guess someone else also thought the dishwasher was loud and thought that would help?

Recently Jeremy became annoyed with the failings of our dishwasher and we started discussing replacement options. We knew we wanted something quite, with a stainless steel tub, for not a lot of money. We gravitated towards Bosch because Jeremy’s parents have one and it is super quiet and they seem to like it a lot. Also, when we vacationed with our friends at Deep Creek Lake this past fall our rental house had two Bosch dishwashers. Implying to me that these dishwashers can take the abuse of a multitude of users.

We found the Bosch SHE55M12UC in white on the Sears Outlet website. The Sears Outlet is where they sell floor models and refurbished appliances (among other items). This Bosch model had everything we were looking for: stainless steel tub, fold down racks on top and bottom, 47 dBA, 259 kWh/yr operating estimate, 3 gallons of water per cycle, half-load option… and lots of other features. The price wasn’t so bad either, $450. The problem is, that is just the cheapest available dishwasher – and it was in Charlotte, NC. The closest dishwashers were still an hour away for more than $500 to pick up in store for an additional $100 to have it delivered. So, we put that option on hold.

Jeremy searched Craigslist for Bosch dishwashers. Now that we knew what we wanted, it made the search easier. We found a white Bosch Dishwasher in Annapolis for $300, and from the pictures it looked like it was the one we found on Sears. When we saw the dishwasher in person, it was a different model. This was Bosch SH55P02UC, which appears to be the older model of the one we liked. The SHE55P02UC has a stainless steel tub, folding tines, operates at 47 dBA, 259 kWh/yr operating estimate, 2.8 gallons per cycle, and it offers all the same wash options. The only difference I know of is that this model is no longer in prodcution.

Let’s talk about why this dishwasher is so quiet . As you can see above, it is encased by insulation. This is the thick stuff, and it was securely attached on 4 sides of the dishwasher. Let’s compare to the insulation found on our original dishwasher:

This sad insulation was like yellow fiberglass encased in a trash bag. It only wrapped around 3 of the sides, and was not securely attached.

There are other features that make the Bosch run quietly. It has two pumps to help minimize noise and vibration, and a solid base. Our old dishwasher was propped up by 4 little legs, but the Bosch rests solidly on the floor.

Well, as the pictures reveal, we bought the white Bosch and uninstalled our old dishwasher. Here’s how we did it:

Turn off the power to the dishwasher. Our fuse box had a switch just for the dishwasher. If you want to be extra safe, turn off all the power in the kitchen.
Turn off the water where the dishwasher connects under the sink.
Disconnect the drain hose from the disposal. Ours was a white hose attached with a clamp. Loosen the screw on the clamp and pull the hose off. We reused the same clamp for our new hose.
Disconnect the water pipe (should hook up near where you turned the water off). Our pipes are rigid copper pipes. After loosening the bolt, Jeremy had to give the dishwasher pipe a good tug to get them to separate. If all else fails, use a hacksaw.
Remove the kick panel from the front of the dishwasher. Open the electrical box and un-wire the dishwasher. Of course, if you have a multimeter, check for any electricity before you do this step. Many new dishwashers just plug in to an outlet – both our new and old dishwashers were wired.
Look around under the dishwasher. You should be able to see where either the drain hose or water pipe connect. Disconnect them if you can. Our rigid copper pipe attached in the back, and we couldn’t unhook it.
Lastly, un-mount the dishwasher from the counter top. Most likely it is attached with two screws on the underneath of the counter.

If you do all of those steps, then your dishwasher should be free from any connections and you can just pull it out.

There you go – a dishwasher hole. You can see the white electrical wire coming out of the wall, and above that, on the side of the cabinet, the hole for the drain hose and water pipe. Oh, and the filth. I think that dishwasher has been there since 1996.

To install the dishwasher, you just do all those steps in reverse. Jeremy wired the dishwasher to the power while I connected the pipes. Then we turned the power back on and ran a half-load of dishes.

Isn’t it beautiful? The main criticism we found in reviews is that the tub is too small. I think the tub is a reasonable size for Jeremy and I. We ran a full load after three days of dirty dishes. I will admit that I am having trouble loading it though. After 3.5 years I knew how to load our old dishwasher, we had a good systems for what dishes fit where. These new racks have tines going in different directions and I just haven’t mastered the art of loading this dishwasher. Our largest dinner plates do fit in the bottom rack, but depending on how you pull out the top rack, the spinning arms on the top rack hit the dishes.

Oh, and it is nice and quiet. We can have a conversation in the kitchen and watch TV in the living room at a reasonable volume while it is running.

What upgrades have you made recently? In the market for a dishwasher? Fan of the Bosch?