Blessings Darlings!
While we DID have a dry month early this summer, on the whole this summer has been coolish and dry. There have been less days over 90 degrees than usual, and rain levels have been more than usual since the early hot dry spell.
So now I have issues from those factors in my garden! I've only lost a couple of zucchinis to end rot from the rain, but on top of those losses some of the zukes haven't been well pollenated - they grow right the first few inches then sudden narrow and don't develop the rest of the way down the fruit. Others, while properly pollenated have seemed to started to hibernate instead of finishing growing. And my tomatoes are not just waiting for a few hot days to suddenly have hundreds of them suddenly ripen all at once - the indetermanent ones that ARE coming ripe one at a time all have big cracks at the stem end, the standard sign of too much water.
I'm concerned I won't get any of the sweet potatoes, as they need rather a lot of days over 90 degrees to move from forming vines to forming tubers.
By the way, the DE didn't do squat for any of the bugs on the beans. I don't think I'll be getting even enough beans for a dinner side dish, let alone freeze or can any. The leaves of the beans look like delicate lace. And the daily rain means that anything I use on the plants gets promptly washed off.
To paraphrase the folk saying: humanity proposes, nature disposes.
Frondly, Fern
Showing posts with label Beans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Beans. Show all posts
Thursday, August 8, 2013
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
The Writing Life
Blessings Darlings!
We have our own business. It's primarily writing software for B2B applications, mostly involving HID class devices (Keyboards, mouses, etc) and TCP/IP applications (remoting controlling your shark tank).
But it JUST dawned on me that I can't think of this as a "technology business", but that it's FAR more like being (or being married to) an author.
Not only is the process of creation the same ... but you don't get paid until/unless the work is written and edited. And if one project takes longer than projected, you don't get paid when you expected to be. And, again, if one project takes longer than expected, you ALSO don't get to work on, and then get paid for, the NEXT project on time.
Which explains why I'm not doing my Big Shopping Trip this month. Which is okay, the usual trip lets me get a bit more of all staples than we usually use each month. But, fundamentally, we'll be spending half of what we'd be getting on food stamps this month.
So, we'll be eating lots of bean sprouts. Lots of beans. We ALWAYS eat lots of soups, so that won't change.
I'm a bit concerned that my grand plans for paying off our debts by a huge amount this year won't be happening, let alone the planned increase in our savings.
OTOH, I DO have some plans on ways to increase income, but they won't be immediate .... but that's par for the course, isn't it?
How are your New Years Plans working out so far?
Frondly, Fern
We have our own business. It's primarily writing software for B2B applications, mostly involving HID class devices (Keyboards, mouses, etc) and TCP/IP applications (remoting controlling your shark tank).
But it JUST dawned on me that I can't think of this as a "technology business", but that it's FAR more like being (or being married to) an author.
Not only is the process of creation the same ... but you don't get paid until/unless the work is written and edited. And if one project takes longer than projected, you don't get paid when you expected to be. And, again, if one project takes longer than expected, you ALSO don't get to work on, and then get paid for, the NEXT project on time.
Which explains why I'm not doing my Big Shopping Trip this month. Which is okay, the usual trip lets me get a bit more of all staples than we usually use each month. But, fundamentally, we'll be spending half of what we'd be getting on food stamps this month.
So, we'll be eating lots of bean sprouts. Lots of beans. We ALWAYS eat lots of soups, so that won't change.
I'm a bit concerned that my grand plans for paying off our debts by a huge amount this year won't be happening, let alone the planned increase in our savings.
OTOH, I DO have some plans on ways to increase income, but they won't be immediate .... but that's par for the course, isn't it?
How are your New Years Plans working out so far?
Frondly, Fern
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Frakkin' Stinkbugs
Blessings, Darlings!
The garden is going great guns right now. I've lots of green beans in the fridge to get thru' the next week or 10 days 'till my next bean patch starts producing. I've lots of zucchini. The tomatoes are still behind, and I noticed a very wasp-larva-encrusted tomato horn worm on them. I have no clue if the sweet potatoes are doing anything but producing incredible amounts of vines. Tasty-leaved vines, to be sure.
But I've had to remove two of the 3 zucchini hills due to wilt. Or maybe because of stink bugs sucking the life out of them and killing them. I really don't know which.
So I'm putting out a stink bug trap that I saw online. I do NOT know if it will work effectively, but it has the advantage of being cheap. I took an empty 2 liter soda bottle. I cut the funnel top off. I turned on a small battery powered LED light and put it inside. I inverted the funnel top back on. I put it in the garden at dusk.
Tomorrow morning I'll see if it worked. Or if we'll get rain and if that will kill the light (and maybe take a few bugs with it?)
Stay tuned ....
Frondly, Fern the killer
The garden is going great guns right now. I've lots of green beans in the fridge to get thru' the next week or 10 days 'till my next bean patch starts producing. I've lots of zucchini. The tomatoes are still behind, and I noticed a very wasp-larva-encrusted tomato horn worm on them. I have no clue if the sweet potatoes are doing anything but producing incredible amounts of vines. Tasty-leaved vines, to be sure.
But I've had to remove two of the 3 zucchini hills due to wilt. Or maybe because of stink bugs sucking the life out of them and killing them. I really don't know which.
So I'm putting out a stink bug trap that I saw online. I do NOT know if it will work effectively, but it has the advantage of being cheap. I took an empty 2 liter soda bottle. I cut the funnel top off. I turned on a small battery powered LED light and put it inside. I inverted the funnel top back on. I put it in the garden at dusk.
Tomorrow morning I'll see if it worked. Or if we'll get rain and if that will kill the light (and maybe take a few bugs with it?)
Stay tuned ....
Frondly, Fern the killer
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Can It.
Blessings, Darlings!
It's canning season again! I've been doing fruit so far, but tomatoes (okay, technically a berry) and corn and beans are going to be canned soon.
It's hot and time consuming work, but not exactly intellectually demanding. Which means I have time to do magic and to ponder things. I'll talk about the magic in this post.
Back in the day, when I was a kid, one of the stories we were told about Benjamin Franklin was that he and his father were putting up barrels of pork (no doubt layered with salt). Ben, who was NOT impressed by the long time spent at each meal saying grace, reported said something along the lines of "Dude, why don't we do the grace thing now, over the whole barrel, and get it over with? We'd get our eat on faster at dinner..."
Well, I'm not taking quite that approach to the canning, but I AM invoking the blessings of the Gods on each batch I can. Working for health. For wholeness. For it to feed us body and soul.
I layer flavors in my cooking (even the peaches I just canned had added cinnamon), it's time I started layering blessings in all I do.
Frondly, Fern
It's canning season again! I've been doing fruit so far, but tomatoes (okay, technically a berry) and corn and beans are going to be canned soon.
It's hot and time consuming work, but not exactly intellectually demanding. Which means I have time to do magic and to ponder things. I'll talk about the magic in this post.
Back in the day, when I was a kid, one of the stories we were told about Benjamin Franklin was that he and his father were putting up barrels of pork (no doubt layered with salt). Ben, who was NOT impressed by the long time spent at each meal saying grace, reported said something along the lines of "Dude, why don't we do the grace thing now, over the whole barrel, and get it over with? We'd get our eat on faster at dinner..."
Well, I'm not taking quite that approach to the canning, but I AM invoking the blessings of the Gods on each batch I can. Working for health. For wholeness. For it to feed us body and soul.
I layer flavors in my cooking (even the peaches I just canned had added cinnamon), it's time I started layering blessings in all I do.
Frondly, Fern
Monday, March 22, 2010
Monday LW - The Musical Fruit
Blessings, Darlings!
Sorry for disappearing for a month - was out of town, then business-busy, then I think I had a problem with gall stones. I'll be discussing that with my doctor later.
But now back to Monday's Wellness posts!
You can tell if I'm working on either my finances or my wellness by what I cook. Transforming dried beans into wonderful dishes is one trick that works on both.
Beans are full of fiber, both soluble and insoluble. These not only keep your bowels regular but the soluble fiber helps lower your cholesterol. Apparently bile and dietary cholesterol bind to insoluble fiber in the digestive track and you poop 'em out rather than absorb them. And the fiber makes them very filling.
Beans are low on the glycemic scale, and thus great for diabetics, prediabetics, and anyone who wants their blood sugar as steady as possible.
Beans are high in protein, so help fill that dietary notch, and they have an assortment of the B-complex vitamins in them (unless you cook them with baking soda, which breaks some of the b-vitamins down. Baking soda keeps the color strong in red and black beans).
And beans are cheap. I can buy a pound of dried pinto beans for a dollar, and split peas cost even less. One pound dry cooks up to about 3 pounds, quite a lot of food for one dollar!
So last week I was lazy and just grabbed a can of chickpeas/garbanzo beans off the shelf, tossed the beans into my blender, added garlic, tahini, lemon juice, hot sauce, and some olive oil then blended 'till smooth. Instant hummus. My husband even loved it! We had it with fresh broccoli florets and carrot slices as the main part of lunches.
Today I've got 2 gallons of chili on the stove. My chili is three parts tomatoes to two parts beans to one part meat and one part red peppers/onions. I also make it soupy rather than stew-like, because it's good and we can easily over eat it. This will be lunches this week.
I have a bit less than a cup of leftover pinto beans. I'm considering tossing them into the meat I'll be cooking for tacos for dinner tonight, altho' I know my husband will NOT be happy with that. Or maybe I'll make refritos out of them, which he and the spawn will more happily eat.
Frondly, Fern
Sorry for disappearing for a month - was out of town, then business-busy, then I think I had a problem with gall stones. I'll be discussing that with my doctor later.
But now back to Monday's Wellness posts!
You can tell if I'm working on either my finances or my wellness by what I cook. Transforming dried beans into wonderful dishes is one trick that works on both.
Beans are full of fiber, both soluble and insoluble. These not only keep your bowels regular but the soluble fiber helps lower your cholesterol. Apparently bile and dietary cholesterol bind to insoluble fiber in the digestive track and you poop 'em out rather than absorb them. And the fiber makes them very filling.
Beans are low on the glycemic scale, and thus great for diabetics, prediabetics, and anyone who wants their blood sugar as steady as possible.
Beans are high in protein, so help fill that dietary notch, and they have an assortment of the B-complex vitamins in them (unless you cook them with baking soda, which breaks some of the b-vitamins down. Baking soda keeps the color strong in red and black beans).
And beans are cheap. I can buy a pound of dried pinto beans for a dollar, and split peas cost even less. One pound dry cooks up to about 3 pounds, quite a lot of food for one dollar!
So last week I was lazy and just grabbed a can of chickpeas/garbanzo beans off the shelf, tossed the beans into my blender, added garlic, tahini, lemon juice, hot sauce, and some olive oil then blended 'till smooth. Instant hummus. My husband even loved it! We had it with fresh broccoli florets and carrot slices as the main part of lunches.
Today I've got 2 gallons of chili on the stove. My chili is three parts tomatoes to two parts beans to one part meat and one part red peppers/onions. I also make it soupy rather than stew-like, because it's good and we can easily over eat it. This will be lunches this week.
I have a bit less than a cup of leftover pinto beans. I'm considering tossing them into the meat I'll be cooking for tacos for dinner tonight, altho' I know my husband will NOT be happy with that. Or maybe I'll make refritos out of them, which he and the spawn will more happily eat.
Frondly, Fern
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