Stickman's 2015 - That's All She Wrote...

Hi All! It's been an incredibly busy winter dealing with one thing and another, and it's only about half over here.   Still, it's time to get on the stick and put my seeds in the dirt in preparation for plant-out in another 12 weeks or so. I have a Manzano over-wintering inside that's going on its third year. It's next to a sliding glass door with a great southern exposure but the light it gets here this time of year is pretty paltry... I expect it'll start to perk up sometime in March. I have a couple of MoA Scotch Bonnets over-wintering at a friend's house because there wasn't space in front of the sliding glass door for them and my wife's indoor plants... the deal is that if they both survive the winter, we'll split the plants. If not, he'll keep the one that lives. That seems fair since he did all the work.
 
The rest of the list is looking like this...

Pubiscens Varieties
Total bust this year... nothing that germinated survived.

Baccatum:
Ditto

Frutascens:
Tabasco
Hawaiian Bird chile
 
Chacoense:
Ditto

Chinense:
7-pot Yellow Turned out to be a red "Not"
MoA Scotch Bonnet
Beni Highlands... Also turned out to be a "Not"... maybe a Mako Akokrosade cross?
Ja Hab
Trinidad Perfume
Zavory

Annuum:
Cabe Rawit (mouse turd pepper, in Singapore where the seeds were collected they're called Cili Padi)
Red Thai
Biggie Chile Anaheim
Poblano Gigantia
Jalapeno Ciclon
Jalapeno Tormenta
Serrano Tampiqueno
Hungarian Hot Wax
Almapaprika
Ethiopian Brown Berbere
 
I'll also be planting a sweet Criolla de Cucina plants and about 20 sweet Kurtovska Kapijas. The Kapijas have the longest growing and ripening times of any Annuum I know, but they're big, meaty sweet peppers that average around a half a pound apiece... just the thing for making that eastern european condiment called Ajvar.
 
Too tired to say more now, but will pick up later... Cheers!

 

[stickman]

 
Morel hunting is one, but not many people do that anymore and those who do keep their favorite spots as secret as a treasured fishing hole.  I found a patch last year, the first I've ever found without being shown.  Sauteed with butter, they are divine.  Some people like to harvest the early shoots of pokeweed for poke salad, scrambled with eggs and, in my dad's case, squirrel brains. Yuk.  It always seemed like more trouble than it was worth to me (even without the brains).  Ramps aren't native here, but if I can get them started, that'll be a good thing.  Never heard of Morris dancing.  There is a Springfest in Fayetteville, but no matter when they schedule it, it always seems to rain on that weekend.  There is a large lake nearby, Beaver Lake, and every spring the white bass make a spawning run up all the tributaries.  They will hit just about any lure or bait you throw at them.  People will line up shoulder to shoulder and pull in fish until their arms get tired.  I like to fish, but don't like crowds, so I skip that one.  One of my favorite spring traditions as a kid was making sassafras tea.  Dig up a few roots, scrub them well, and steep them in boiling hot water for a few minutes.  Sweeten with honey or sugar and it is a fine spring tonic.  I haven't made any in years, though I do have a patch of sassafras on my place.  I think I'll make some this weekend.

 
Dang right! Morels are so rare that I wouldn't share a spot where they're growing either. Let 'em find their own.   We have a lot of Poke growing in the wet places here, but nobody I know eats the early greens. My Mom likes to pick Dandelion greens in the lawn and Cowslips down by the brook in early spring. If you can time it right there's Fiddleheads (King Fern shoots), but I'll take a pass on all of that for lettuce, beet greens and Crown Daisy. Walleye are staging for the spawn about now in the rivers hereabouts... we don't have them in the lakes and ponds like they do in the midwest. In May it'll be time for the Shad run. There used to be Atlantic Salmon in the Connecticut river and its tributaries, but hydroelectric dams pretty much wiped out that population. They've been throwing away tax money for 40 years trying to introduce Maine Salmon into the Connecticut, but it's too warm for them. Less than10% of the fingerlings make it back out to sea, and less than 1% of those come back. There's a Morris Dancing festival on May Day weekend near here in the town of Brattleboro, Vermont. It's an old English folk dance tradition that was supposed to "wake up the earth" before spring planting and scare away bad spirits. The practitioners usually wear white clothes, lots of colored ribbons and bell-pads on their shins and it looks like this...

All good here in SA buddy. Just way too busy work wise... it's been hectic! I have most of the chillies processed... just have to make the sauce now and bottle the stuff. Never enough time... I will do some more updates soon I hope

 
Can we hold you to that?   Glad to hear that your harvest has been rolling in Lourens, and I hear ya 'bout being busy...
 
 

Good to see those signs of Spring there, Rick.  
 
Fulll throttle, now, buddy!

 
S'right brother! Thanks for the good vibe.

 

[Pulpiteer]

Great to see the signs of life around your place Rick.  Interesting to hear the similarities and differences between you out East and us here in Michigan.  We've got morels too, and it's a big deal around here.  People keep their spots secret and take that to the grave. I've offered to be a confessor for folks because being a pastor, they should trust that I'd keep their spot safe, but no one has bit

 

[Essegi]

My mother came from MA, so I remember everything you just said about maple syrup and sugar and snow packs.  I really need to get set up to tap the sugar maple in my front yard.  It's huge.  Some years back I had to trim some of the lower limbs in late winter/early spring in order to get a big truck under it to deliver some equipment.  All the cut limbs dripped copious amounts of sap for many days afterward.

I have 2 maple trees on the garden, i don't know wich species. In 2 years they haven't grown... I strongly opposed to plant those, i wanted to plant an oak but people said that it's too big and slow in growing... But they're local and so beautiful... At the moment i have 3 small oaks on vases, i suppose 2 are Quercus Robur (Farnia, the classic and most enduring oak) and 1 Quercus Turneri (not sure, but form leaves seems that). Maybe i could plant that last one that is the smallest but still slow (not that i care) but i should eradicate an olive tree and a maple, i'd hate to do that and if i do i'll try to plant them somewhere else, but they aren't growing and seems to have some illness (especially the olive tree, i don't remember the name but has an hardly curable disease).
 

4x10 foot Superhot chile bed

Woa, still quite some snow here!

 

[stickman]

Great to see the signs of life around your place Rick.  Interesting to hear the similarities and differences between you out East and us here in Michigan.  We've got morels too, and it's a big deal around here.  People keep their spots secret and take that to the grave. I've offered to be a confessor for folks because being a pastor, they should trust that I'd keep their spot safe, but no one has bit

 
Heh, heh.... I can understand that...  I'm sure there wasn't anything personal in that  Andy.
 

I have 2 maple trees on the garden, i don't know wich species. In 2 years they haven't grown... I strongly opposed to plant those, i wanted to plant an oak but people said that it's too big and slow in growing... But they're local and so beautiful... At the moment i have 3 small oaks on vases, i suppose 2 are Quercus Robur (Farnia, the classic and most enduring oak) and 1 Quercus Turneri (not sure, but form leaves seems that). Maybe i could plant that last one that is the smallest but still slow (not that i care) but i should eradicate an olive tree and a maple, i'd hate to do that and if i do i'll try to plant them somewhere else, but they aren't growing and seems to have some illness (especially the olive tree, i don't remember the name but has an hardly curable disease).
 
Woa, still quite some snow here!

 
I've never been to Italy Giancarlo, so I'll have to take your word for it. I did grow up with Italians though... my Dad worked as a welder for a Civil Engineer named Carlo Fusini who owned a business called Berkshire Bridge and Iron. He brought his uncle Sammy Pucci over from Tuscany to work for him, and also Sammy's friend Giacomo Pizzoni. Dad's best friend at the shop was Giacomo, and we spent a fair amount of time at his and his wife Ena's house. I learned how to grow peppers and make wine and grappa from him, and how to cook a few things Tuscan-style from her. Lots of good memories there.
 
After being very busy at work for a few weeks, I had a day almost to myself today. The riverbanks are too icy to climb over, and the ice on the lakes and ponds is too soft to be safe, so no fishing. I pulled up or hacked down the dead plants in the veggie garden, raked off the dead stuff on top and pulled up and discarded the plastic water bottles I had set next to each pepper plant for liquid nutes. The ground is still too frozen to be worked but the snow is melting fast.
 
It's not very photogenic, but I made a batch of roasted Habanero and Pineapple salsa with a bit of fresh ginger, minced red onion and lime juice in it. I'd say the Habanero makes a perfect accompaniment to the pineapple (or just about any tropical fruit.)

 

[stickman]

Just got through making my contribution to the Easter feast at my Mom's today... Cream of fresh Asparagus soup. Nothing says early spring like the early greens and that.   I also got a bag of fresh greens and a Babka (Polish Easter bread) to bring along. Hope everybody has an excellent holiday with friends and family, and also to our friends who are having Seder. Cheers!

 

[tctenten]

Rick happy Easter to you and your family.

 

[PaulG]

"I made a batch of roasted Habanero and Pineapple salsa with a bit of fresh ginger,
minced red onion and lime juice in it. I'd say the Habanero makes a perfect
accompaniment to the pineapple (or just about any tropical fruit.)"
 
Right on, Rick!  One of my favorites is Mango Habanero

 

[stickman]

Hi folks! I've been as busy as the proverbial one-legged man at an a**kicking contest lately. It's been too long since I posted here and got caught up on all of your glogs, but here's what I've accomplished in my garden this week...
 
spaded in the humus and amendments into my 4x10 foot raised bed on the south side of the house. That's where most of the Chenense plants are going tomorrow.

 
I put together a 4x8 foot raised bed in the front yard for my wife to put her strawberry plants so I can move them out of my square-foot veggie garden.

 
Speaking of the veggie garden, I got that all cleaned up, compost and amendments added, and all spaded in and raked out... ready to plant!

 
Pepper Row as well! I just need to lay out the IRT plastic mulch, punch holes to plant in it, and set up the low row cover. We're still getting some overnight low temperatures in the low to mid 30s, but half the time it's up in the 40s or even 50s. What I'm waiting on is for the condo association to turn on the water line to the garden so I can set up the dripline for water before I plant the peppers and tomatoes. The root crops, cruciforms and lettuce will go in tomorrow.

 
A quick pic to show where spring is at here... purple Crocus and pixie Iris flowers in my wife's flower bed. Tulips and Daffodils are showing their tips, but not ready to flower for at least a couple of weeks I think.

 
Have a great weekend all!

 

[Trippa]

Great stuff Rick ! That turn around from snow to productive soil is a credit to you and looks great. Best of luck with continuing warming of the soil

 

[maximumcapsicum]

Looks fanatic Rick! Heat's coming on fast. Love your setup and organization.

 

[JoynersHotPeppers]

Looking awesome Ricky Bobbie!

 

[cypresshill1973]

SM: I like your garden. nice place. What things you will grow there?

 

[Jeff H]

Looking great Rick.

 

[tctenten]

You make a nice home for your plants. Planters look great.

 

[Scorched]

Very neat and nice looking garden and grow areas

 

[stickman]

Rick happy Easter to you and your family.

 

"I made a batch of roasted Habanero and Pineapple salsa with a bit of fresh ginger,
minced red onion and lime juice in it. I'd say the Habanero makes a perfect
accompaniment to the pineapple (or just about any tropical fruit.)"
 
Right on, Rick!  One of my favorites is Mango Habanero

 
Thanks guys, and a belated happy Easter to you too...
 
I just spent the afternoon at my Mom's celebrating her 76th birthday. We made supper for her and my wife made a lamb cake.
 
 

Great stuff Rick ! That turn around from snow to productive soil is a credit to you and looks great. Best of luck with continuing warming of the soil

 
Thanks Tristan, have you moved to NZ yet?
 
 

Looks fanatic Rick! Heat's coming on fast. Love your setup and organization.

 

Looking awesome Ricky Bobbie!

 

Looking great Rick.

 

You make a nice home for your plants. Planters look great.

 

Very neat and nice looking garden and grow areas

 
S'right guys ... we're almost there, and while it's still a little early here
 

SM: I like your garden. nice place. What things you will grow there?

 
Mostly, I grow things that give a high return for a limited amount of space Fabian... Lettuce, Kale, Baby Bok Choy, Tomatoes, Eggplants, Korean Ho Bak Squash, Pickling Cucumbers, Carrots, Beets, Scallions, Bush Beans, Korean Radishes and a few herbs and flowers to call in the friendly insects to groom the plants and keep the aphids and mites at bay.
, using plasticulture methods I can get a 3-4 week jump on the season. Water is still the limiting factor though. I'll be able to run a drip irrigation line out to the raised bed behind the house, so I'll be planting that one tomorrow.  The rest will have to wait down cellar under the grow lights until the condo association turns on the water line to the community garden.

 

[Pinoy83]

getting busy brahhhh, those raised beds are awesome, and your wifey will be happy with her new raised bed    

 

[maximumcapsicum]

Trying bush beans for the first time down here too. Pretty excited to have all the taco ingredients coming out of the community garden beds. A lot to learn still, and space is very constrained, but experience and THP is the only way to go.

You're efforts are to be emulated, my friend.

 

[cypresshill1973]

An orchard varied Rick! It will be nice to see the planters filled. 

 

[Sawyer]

Wow, Rick, things dried out in a hurry once the snow melted, didn't it?  We've had such frequent rains here, more often than not, it's too wet to get in the garden. 
 

I put together a 4x8 foot raised bed in the front yard for my wife to put her strawberry plants so I can move them out of my square-foot veggie garden.

 
I love it!  Gardening in the front yard.  That's where my comfrey, apple trees and blueberry bushes are.  I'll soon have a lot of potted peppers there, too, or maybe I'll just go ahead and till the whole thing.
 
Speaking of beans, I'm moving away from bush beans and focusing more on pole beans.  They are a little slower to start bearing, but the overall yield is greater.  And I have plenty of bamboo for poles and trellises.  I will plant some bush varieties for an earlier harvest, Calima, Calypso, Cantare, Carson, and/or  Concador.  I have many more varieties of pole beans to try, but two in particular I'm enthusiastic about are Good Mother Stallard (another link) and Major Cook's (another link).