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Author
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Topic: 4th Plans?
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earthwalker
Cultural Editor & middleweight arm wrestling champion/Intermountain Region
Member # 4177
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posted July 01, 2019 07:13 AM
Looks like I'll be making pickled beets and canning all of them.
I'm off and the other half is on.
Also looks like I'm going to have a ton of onions this fall, yellows and whites.
Nothing else is quite ready for use yet.
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another long hot smoky summer coming
Posts: 1105 | From: Intermountain region | Registered: Jul 2012
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Kokopelli
SENIOR DISCOUNT & Dispenser of Sage Advice
Member # 633
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posted July 01, 2019 08:06 AM
Archery practice.
Yardwork.
Cleaning the workshop out.
Sitting on the patio watching the fireworks & sipping on a Rum Chata / Fireball. (Probably with our fearless pit-bull curled up trembling on my lap.)
Not going nowhere & got all week-end to get there.
![[Cool]](cool.gif)
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And lo, the Light of the Trump shown upon the Darkness and the Darkness could not comprehend it.
Posts: 7580 | From: Under a wandering star | Registered: Apr 2005
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earthwalker
Cultural Editor & middleweight arm wrestling champion/Intermountain Region
Member # 4177
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posted July 01, 2019 08:31 AM
Sounds like a great plan.
I may sit out in the cabana in the evening and enjoy the night and listen for any fireworks.
Other half will be work until midnight that night.
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another long hot smoky summer coming
Posts: 1105 | From: Intermountain region | Registered: Jul 2012
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted July 01, 2019 08:33 AM
Whatever is the attraction of pickled beets? Maybe as a tinsy bit of garnish on a salad? I don't think even a vegan would care to make a meal out of them?
Onions. But, I don't know? What's a yellow? I see lots of red, white and what I consider a brown onion, which is what I buy. There are a couple others like Mayan, and another big fat one can't remember the name but mostly beyond what I feel an onion is worth. However, I do love the little green onions, my dad used to buy them all the time. Sliced, they beat chives on a baked potato, in my opinion.
Any kind of onion is great in a cheeseburger, even red, which should not be eaten in any form except raw. sez me. Rutabagas really suck, my mom used to serve them mashed with potatoes. It's impossible to develop a taste for them. Now, I think I'll have a beet for lunch. Yum!
Good hunting. El Bee
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31462 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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earthwalker
Cultural Editor & middleweight arm wrestling champion/Intermountain Region
Member # 4177
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posted July 01, 2019 08:44 AM
We like pickled beets especially home canned.
Yellow/brownish onions are more for eating as with the red types.
White onions are more for making salsa they hold up better and better lasting flavor in salsa.
Other half loves turnips especially raw. May plant some for this fall.
I also like pickled asparagus now a days.
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another long hot smoky summer coming
Posts: 1105 | From: Intermountain region | Registered: Jul 2012
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted July 01, 2019 08:55 AM
turnips are those white and purple things? And here I thought you feed them to horses? Never tried one, myself.
What is that sweet Mexican root called? Kinda round, brown skin, white flesh like a potato? Very agreeable taste, eaten raw.
Let's hear it for the easiest salad veggie to grow, the radish! Also very good, sliced, with tacos.
Good hunting. El Bee
edit: PS I will have to remember that about white onions in salsa. The home made salsa I make goes fast.
[ July 01, 2019, 08:59 AM: Message edited by: Leonard ]
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31462 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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earthwalker
Cultural Editor & middleweight arm wrestling champion/Intermountain Region
Member # 4177
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posted July 01, 2019 09:02 AM
The Mexican potato is called jicama I think that is the spelling. Tried some earlier this spring. They are okay but won't buy anymore.
My second planting of radishes are now ready to pick and eat along with some carrots.
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another long hot smoky summer coming
Posts: 1105 | From: Intermountain region | Registered: Jul 2012
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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted July 01, 2019 09:23 AM
Went with all heirlooms in my garden this year. Already got a few dragons egg cucumbers, a Croatian variety. Border red okra on the way along with mushroom basket and Russian purple tomatoes. Aside from my copious flower beds - over 30 different kinds - my focus is on my Havana 608 tobacco to go with my burly var. and black mammoth tobacco I grew last year and am fermenting right now. In August, I will plant a sweet green radish that looks like a kiwi fruit and turns to a highly sweet tuber after the first frost. Will see...
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted July 01, 2019 09:35 AM
Damn! That's whole hog, Lance! Will you roll your own cigars? At the price of premium cigars these days, I'm starting to blink.
Good hunting. El Bee
edit: thanks, EW. That's exactly right. However, as a break from routine, I would consume some, especially if I had to choose between turnips and jicama.
[ July 01, 2019, 09:39 AM: Message edited by: Leonard ]
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31462 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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earthwalker
Cultural Editor & middleweight arm wrestling champion/Intermountain Region
Member # 4177
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posted July 01, 2019 01:37 PM
okra must me a south thing.?
Other half likes especially deep fried.
To cold for tobacco and sweet potatoes up here.
But these Russian plants are opening the door for colder zone growing.
I know you need to start all your seeds early raise the plants then set them out to get a good jump start on the growing season at the new place. It's a heck of a learning curve after living at 2700 feet to 5,000 feet plus poorer soil.
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another long hot smoky summer coming
Posts: 1105 | From: Intermountain region | Registered: Jul 2012
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NVWalt
Does not claim to be overly bright!
Member # 375
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posted July 01, 2019 05:00 PM
That all sounds great but every time I think I can grow anything it starts off fine but then withers and dies or they get to looking good and the critters eat them. This was an early spring and then a freeze so the fruit trees are not working out as expected. BUT, just down the road 1 mile away is a Mennonite farm and they seem to be able to grow anything and it all tastes good.
The chickens are getting big enough to start laying eggs soon I hope. Figured it out roughly a couple hundred dozen eggs will let me break even on everything chicken.
This weekend is a BBQ at some friends place and if the winds co-operate maybe I'll fly a kite or two.
Stay cool and have a great 4th of July.
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Support Communism and help destroy the United States of America ! VOTE DEMOCRAT. "In the end, they aren't coming after me. They are coming after you!" D.Trump
Posts: 636 | From: Tellico Plains, TN | Registered: Aug 2004
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Kokopelli
SENIOR DISCOUNT & Dispenser of Sage Advice
Member # 633
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posted July 01, 2019 05:09 PM
Hey Walt;
Is that mail order kite place in Colorado still around ???
They used to have some awesome kite designs.
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And lo, the Light of the Trump shown upon the Darkness and the Darkness could not comprehend it.
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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted July 01, 2019 05:28 PM
Was never a fan of okra due to the slime inside, but they're sure fun to grow and they'll go crazy in the kinda heat that kills everything else. I don't really know how to can, but I did do okra using a refrigerator dill pickle recipe last summer that was as good as anything at the store. Even the wife liked them. Now, you said you pickled asparagus. We eat the hell outta that, too, and our favorite way is fresh, rolled in olive oil and steak rub and grilled. You can do the same thing with okra and man, is it good like that.
I started my own seeds this year (first time for this) for the tomatoes, the dragon's eggs, and about 200 coleus plants that are spread out among my flowers beds. Also started some "lipstick" peppers,a red sweet pepper that's supposed to have almost zero heat. They're all growing well but just getting to blossoms.
The tobacco has been an adventure. Didn't know what to expect and been running the learning curve. Made my first try at it two seasons ago with some seeds from the UK. Zero luck. Last year, went with the same company and got 100 seeds. That period at the end of the last sentence will hold about a dozen tobacco seeds. Insanely small. Have to start them on sterile media and their so small that I dumped them onto a white sheet of paper and (wearing a mask so I didn't blow them away with my breath), used a toothpick with a sharpened end dipped in water to pick the seeds up one at a time and brush them onto each starter cell. The first month of watering is done with a very fine mister and if/when they germinate, they look like a tiny speck of green moss. Takes about a week of good growth to be able to see the first two leaves with unaided eyes.
Moved them to the garden when they were about two inches tall and only had six plants take hold. Last summer was brutally hot and dry and I spent every evening out there watering and weeding, and worrying about the heat. Turns out they love that weather and the hotter and more miserable the day, the better they did. By the time they flowered in late August to early September, each plant was a bit taller than me at 6 foot, and the largest leaves in the second row from the bottom were almost thirty inches long and 22 inches wide, soft as velvet. I cut them when they started to turn yellow around then edges and grouped the leaves according to where they were on the plant (top, middle, middle lower, and lower) into bundles of five leaves each, or "hands". Ended up with 28 "hands" which I hanged from the rafters in my garage to dry (cure).
Sidebar: Once I had okra and tobacco going well alongside each other, the wife didn't see the humor in me calling the backyard "the plantation".
Now, most folks think that you just take that cured tobacco and roll it up to smoke it and you're good to go.
Nope.
In fact, that'll make you sicker than hell.
When Spring got here, I then built a "fermenter" out of a 60-gallon plastic barrel, an outdoor weather sensor and a crock pot. The goal is to have those cured leaves in an environment where the temp is a steady 95-110 degrees F and 70-90% humidity 24/7 for 6 weeks. My leaves went into the barrel on June 5, so here we are coming up on 27 days tomorrow, or 4 weeks Tuesday. Two more weeks and they'll be ready to use. Haven't burned the garage down. Yet.
Why ferment? Fermenting removes ammonia from the leaves (which would make you sick if smoked dried) and converts other stuff in the leaves to sugars to give the tobacco its flavor and aroma. Every day at 5 o'clock or so, I go out, smoke a cigar while I pull out all the hands of tobacco, shake out any excess moisture to keep them from molding, fill the crockpot with fresh water that's been sitting for 24 hours so the chlorine and other stuff will "gas out", then rearrange the leaves and seal the door shut until the next day.
Although the tobacco is smokable now, the next two weeks will make it much smoother. I have taken a couple loose pieces and held them up to the lit end of a cigar I was smoking and I have to say, Mmmmmm. Doesn't flame burn, Just catches and smolders and the smoke smells very earthy. At first, the leaves were brittle dry and smelled like dried alfalfa. Now they have an earthy smell with a hint of sweet. Still all puckered up and rough looking but by gawd, they look, feel and smell like tobacco.
The two varieties I have fermenting are called burly variety, and black mammoth. Both are used as filler - the tobacco inside the cigar, and the black mammoth (the best leaves) are used as binder, the inside wrapping leaf that contains the filler tobacco and is then wrapped in the wrapper leaf. The Havana 608 I'm trying to get going now is a good wrapper, if I can keep it alive. If not, I'll order loose leaf tobacco leaves and use them.
Making the cigar sounds easy enough. I'll use some scrap oak I have around to make a few cigar presses with my router. Use them to clamp the finished cigars until they dry.
Seems you just spray mist the leaves until they're pliable, bundle the fillers (I'm thinking about adding some pipe tobacco for flavor) and warp in a binder leaf, then wrap that in a wrapper leaf that has been brushed liberally with a pectin solution that acts as a glue. Put them in the press and let them cure for a couple weeks. Sounds easy enough, huh?
Now, Kevin has rightfully raised the question about why I just don't buy them like everyone else does and save myself the trouble. He has a point, but what's the fun in that? I used to buy all my hand calls and then I learned how to make them and had a great deal of fun killing coyotes called with something I'd made myself.
I started loading my own ammo and realized how much fun it was to call them and kill them with a load I'd developed on my own. Both things gave me a sense of appreciation for what goes into calls and ammo along with a real sense of accomplishment in ,"look what I did right there!"
This project has really opened my eyes on cigars as well. There's a reason that cigars have their own culture. By my guess, a real cigar at the lower end of the price range probably takes about 3-5 years between seed and cigar, and that times costs money. Maybe it's a waste of time, but the sense of satisfaction that comes from growing everything myself in my own backyard and then getting the chance to sit out back by the fire pit and maybe share a stick with a friend who appreciates good (or, in my case, rancid-assed dog turd) cigars is, well, how can you put a price on that?
Then again, I may choke to death on the first light up and Kevin will have been right - smoking cigars will have killed me. LOL
Trying to post a pic from my phone but Photobucket isn't cooperating.
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
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CrossJ
SECOND PLACE: PAUL RYAN Look-a-like contest
Member # 884
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posted July 01, 2019 06:04 PM
Lance, start your tobacco plants early in a green house(two months or more). Cut them back from the top as they grow. This will give you a lot better root system at transplanting, as well as a heartier plant. Keep any tobacco users away from your young plants, as they are very susceptible to MDMV(maize dwarf mosaic virus). It can be transmitted through tobacco products and it will render your leaves worthless. Message me if you have some difficulty, if I cant help I bet I know someone who can.
Maintain
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A friend will help you move. A good friend will help you move a body.
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted July 01, 2019 06:57 PM
Lance, you better try for a Backwoods type of smoke. I wouldn't try to roll a Cohiba at first. Besides that, I have heard that those that roll a first class cigar, apprentice for a long time. IDK?
Good hunting. LB
PS what does ATF have to say about growing tobacco and Bourbon and firearms?
edit: as far as deriving satisfaction building your own calls and handloading your own ammunition. I have been saying for YEARS, anybody that owns and hunts with a rifle should relaod, although I object to the term because it sounds second rate, but is actually superior. Besides that, I don't know anybody that handloads that can't quote velocity and drop and terminal energy and midrange trajectory. I hunted with a guy that showed up with three different boxes of 7Mag, half full. By the time he got sighted in he had to use a different box, but they were all 175 grain so it's all good, right? Anyway, you're headed in the right direction.
[ July 01, 2019, 07:06 PM: Message edited by: Leonard ]
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31462 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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NVWalt
Does not claim to be overly bright!
Member # 375
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posted July 02, 2019 02:45 AM
Kokopelli, if you mean Into The Wind, they are still around and still sell kites. Have met them at a couple kite festivals and they are pretty ok people that own that place.
Reading about the tobacco project here was, and is,pretty interesting. It also let my feeble mind realize why they grew tobacco here in the south. At 100 degrees out this past couple days your plants would have been in 7th heaven. I was curious about that because I enjoy my pipe and a good bowl of Chartwell and thought about trying to grow a plant or two to try out. Does sound like a lot of work but gratifying in the end.
The wifey nice has tried to grow some rhubarb now for a couple seasons. They seem to just get going and then croak. I think they don't like the weather here but those Mennonites seem to grow some each year. Must be some sort of green thumb thing.
Have seen a few red fox splattered on the roads here of late. Sure wish I could legally hunt at night here for them. Oh well. Speaking of critters I have seen more bobcats and pigs than coyotes and you can listen to the coyotes at night. Go figure.
Happy 4th to you all as they say down here.
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Support Communism and help destroy the United States of America ! VOTE DEMOCRAT. "In the end, they aren't coming after me. They are coming after you!" D.Trump
Posts: 636 | From: Tellico Plains, TN | Registered: Aug 2004
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted July 02, 2019 05:02 AM
I sure wish I could hear coyote howl! Almost never. One time , I heard one while sleeping in the back so I stood up through the hatch and I saw this coyote standing about 2 feet from the back bumper. He never looked up and as he was walking away, I nailed him, a never knew what hit him type of shot.
But, my hearing has been shot since the military, we never were issued or used ear plugs. I competed on the Battalion pistol team and what we did was stick an empty 45 case in our ears. I'm not sure if it helped much, but our range was a huge, and I don't use the word lightly, back dropped structure that was probably 4 stories high and across maybe a hundred shooting positions, almost exclusively for rifle out to (I think?) 500 yards. So we were right up close, 25 yards and the acoustics were brutal! This was a general purpose range and all the other units came there, Maybe it was by Graffenweir, I'm not sure? But for pistol competitions it was less than ideal and thats where I lost my hearing and probably so did everyone else. Hard to believe, today that there was so little concern for hearing, back then. Talk about technique! we were taught stand sideways, one handed, the other hand in your front pocket. I'm not much better than average, as a pistol shot, tell you the truth.
Good hunting. El Bee
[ July 02, 2019, 05:14 AM: Message edited by: Leonard ]
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31462 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Kokopelli
SENIOR DISCOUNT & Dispenser of Sage Advice
Member # 633
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posted July 02, 2019 05:52 AM
Walt;
That's the place. I used to have a few of their kites until my daughter took them away from me. Had one that was a black shark about 5 feet long. Looked really cool 'swimming' in the air.
C-Dude; Are you familiar with the 'Backwoodsman' magazine ?? Lots of cool project articles.
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And lo, the Light of the Trump shown upon the Darkness and the Darkness could not comprehend it.
Posts: 7580 | From: Under a wandering star | Registered: Apr 2005
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Cdog911
"There are some ideas so absurd only an intellectual could believe them."--George Orwell.
Member # 7
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posted July 02, 2019 09:43 AM
Koko, yeah, have a couple issues lying around here and a couple big books of that sorta stuff on the shelf.
Geordie, these plants were under growing lights for two months so they were started well before they went into the ground. What kinda things should I avoid planting them near or in ground they occupied the year prior? I can say that not a single bug bit into any of my plants last year. Healthy as could be when they flowered.
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I am only one. But still, I am one. I cannot do everything, but still, I can do something; and, because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
Posts: 5438 | From: The gun-lovin', gun-friendly wild, wild west | Registered: Jan 2003
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earthwalker
Cultural Editor & middleweight arm wrestling champion/Intermountain Region
Member # 4177
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posted July 02, 2019 10:45 AM
It's called being self reliant, knowing how to feed yourself, stay healthy and keep the knowledge going forward.
Canning is easy. I did watch and help my mom a million years ago. So really had to learn it all over again. The hardest part of canning is prepping the food and jars. A lot of good books out there and follow the recipes and the instructions and usually not many problems.
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another long hot smoky summer coming
Posts: 1105 | From: Intermountain region | Registered: Jul 2012
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Kokopelli
SENIOR DISCOUNT & Dispenser of Sage Advice
Member # 633
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posted July 02, 2019 12:07 PM
One more plug; There's a series of books called Foxfire' that are basically about self-reliant mountain folks. Lots of good info.
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And lo, the Light of the Trump shown upon the Darkness and the Darkness could not comprehend it.
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Paul Melching
Radical Operator Forum "You won't get past the front gate"
Member # 885
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posted July 02, 2019 04:31 PM
Thanks to KOKO I own the foxfire book , Love pickled beets and okra . my mama was a canning fool I remember one year we canned 128 lbs. of white meat Albacore in oil and Bbq. sauce! After a nice three day boat ! MMMMM Sounds cool but it was a lot of work fed us many times !
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Those who value security over liberty soon will have neither !
Posts: 4188 | From: The forest ! north of the dez. | Registered: Jul 2006
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Leonard
HMFIC
Member # 2
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posted July 02, 2019 04:42 PM
None of you guys will know this, but many years ago, Shredded Wheat used to come in a shape that was like a shoebox and the biscuits were as big as a baking potato and you crumbled them up, added milk and sugar. So far, you are with me? But the layers between had a cardboard divider and on these were printed a bunch of camping and frontier stuff, by Straight Arrow. How to make your own bow or set a trap for beaver, stuff like that. Also there were drawings of the tracks various critters mad, the spoor they left behind, etc. I used to save those cards forever. Back in those days, there weren't a lot of choices, Wheaties, Cherrios, Quaker Puffed Wheat and my favorite, Puffed Rice. This stuff was "Shot From Guns." Sponsered "Sergeant Preston of the Yukon" Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Had a Shepard named King. This was radio shows, can you think of anything less appealing, for todays kids?
Good hunting. El Bee
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EL BEE Knows It All and Done It All.
Don't piss me off!
Posts: 31462 | From: Upland, CA | Registered: Jan 2003
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Paul Melching
Radical Operator Forum "You won't get past the front gate"
Member # 885
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posted July 03, 2019 03:49 AM
Don't know what you're talkin bout Lenbo and that was Yukon King. LOL Shredded wheat was my favorite !
Radio was awesome. No one knows what danger lurks in the hearts of men except the shadow he knows !
[ July 03, 2019, 03:53 AM: Message edited by: Paul Melching ]
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Those who value security over liberty soon will have neither !
Posts: 4188 | From: The forest ! north of the dez. | Registered: Jul 2006
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Kokopelli
SENIOR DISCOUNT & Dispenser of Sage Advice
Member # 633
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posted July 03, 2019 06:36 AM
I think that it was what 'evil' lurks in the hearts of men.
Or maybe in the hearts of women. ![[Confused]](confused.gif)
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And lo, the Light of the Trump shown upon the Darkness and the Darkness could not comprehend it.
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