Out Looking For Trouble

 And hopefully not finding it.  After several weeks of wind and snow and single digit temperatures, we are experiencing a warmup.  Its a good time to go outside, get some fresh air and check on things to make sure there is no damage that needs to be taken care of and no reinforcements that need to be made.  Because now would be the time to do that too.

There is a vole or field mouse that has been tunneling under the snow.  Thankfully the wire cloches turned him and he did not feast on fresh Primrose.

The wire pinned over my newly planted bulbs is popping up.  I stomped them all down tight.

I checked on the Heuchera.

The landscape pins are not the only thing heaving in the freeze and thaw, but these will eventually level out.  There are usually a few pavers that need to be releveled come spring.  In the meantime it can be a little hazardous to walk on.

We still have a few White Ash trees along our west edge.  They are dead and shedding branches all over this one area.  I remember years when we would spend hours each spring raking the lawn.  This looks like a mess but won't be much work to clean up.

This one lost its top during the several days when we had high winds.  I took a photo when there was snow on it so you an see that sizeable top lying diagonally in there,  Some people in our area were without power for two days.  This doesn't look like a very big tree in the photo, but it is big enough to be a serious job and capable of doing quite a bit of damage.  I am happy that its top is down and I am also happy that it fell in the wooded area where we can clean it up at our leisure and not on the neighbor's driveway where we would have had to clean it up during that foul weather.

So fortunately no serious issues to report or remedy.  It is nearly 50F today and still but foggy.  We would like to see some sun but that isn't likely for awhile. Tomorrow is supposed to be quite pleasant and brighter and I'll go out and play pick up sticks.

Keeping an Eye on Things

Our night time temperatures have been dipping into the single digits.  When they start to get into the teens I keep a close eye on my dahlia tubers that I have stored in the basement bulkhead.   When the outside temps are in the teens the dahlia tub will start to dip below 40F.  I do not want them to be below 35F as the optimum storage temperature is 35-50F and freezing will turn them to mush.  So, we moved them from the basement to the woodshop in the two car garage lean to.  We keep that heated to 50F.

I have a remote sensor nestled into the top of the tub.  It is the number above which is circled in red.  The other temperatures are our house (68), the outside temp on the front porch (11) and the basement freezer in which we store all of our meat (0).  This lets me keep a close watch on all of the important temperatures.  

The humidity in the dahlia tub is a little misleading.  It says 99% and the optimum would be between 75% and 85% but the vermiculite passes the touch test and there is no condensation inside the lid.  As long as there is no mold showing anywhere, I would rather err on the side of too much humidity so they do not shrivel up.  Around the first of each month I open up the tub, dig around, and give some of the tubers a pinch to test their condition.  So far, so good.

 

Mary Ann Pans

This post could alternately be called "Fun with baking and meat jelly".

Besides gardening, one of my interests is collecting vintage kitchen items.  I like old tins and boxes, various useful items, cookware etc.  I love lithographed, illustrated, advertising and recipe booklets.  I like things that modern trends have left behind.  I like tinware.  I like things from the 1920s.  Sometimes I run into an item that checks a lot of boxes.  And they're usually pretty cheap too.  A few years ago, while searching Etsy for tin pans I came across this little box of Mary Ann Shell Pans.  I loved it for the colorful box and for its completeness so I snapped it up for a few dollars.

Mary Ann Shells are any pans that create a cake with a sunken center for adding a topping.  They came in many shapes and sizes.  

This is the back page of the booklet that came with it.

I love this modern heart shaped pan. Who wouldn't want to create a dessert like this?

Creating it may even be more fun than eating it.

I bought this pan on Amazon.

These Mary Ann Shells with their colorful box were produced by Ekco starting in 1921

Below are the pans which came in my box.

Ekco, whom many of you will be familiar with since they made metal kitchenware well into the 1980s, was originally called the E Katzinger Company.

The E Katzinger Co became Ekco 

Here is an in depth and interesting History of the Ekco Company.  

Patent 1,388,364

They used this patent for the Mary Ann Shells.  

**Footnote:  I think I just realized where the name Mary Ann came from.  

The patent was held by Mary A. Miller.  

Eureka!

My vintage pans came with a little square booklet of recipes which was wonderfully illustrated.  The booklets aren't very common, no doubt due to the fact that they are perforated to let you put the recipes into your recipe box.  While I think of Mary Ann Pans as being cake pans, at least half of the recipes are for molding other foods.

Upper right: Spinach with creamed mushrooms and eggs

Upper left:  Rice ring with veggies

Recently, I scored another booklet on eBay which featured more recipes.  It was produced in 1929 and obviously done by the same artist.  So many options!

You could make a larger dish for your family, or break them into smaller portions to serve to the ladies when they came to play Bridge.

Some of the recipes are quite fancy like Salmon Mousse.

Other recipes feature foods we have left behind like Jellied Bullion (Aspic).

I wouldn't want to try a meat loaf in one of these pans either.  Its hard enough to get it out of a rectangular pan without making a mess.  That's the thing about using these old fashioned pans.  We've become accustomed to non-stick cookware or a shot of Pam Baking Spray.  These pans call for greasing them well in every nook and cranny.

Jellied Tuna Fish or Ginger Ale Salad

Gee, no one uses Aspic any more.  

In fact, America has lost a lot of imagination when it comes to gelatin molds.  They used to be a staple of all Holiday meals.  I sort of miss them.

So that is our little trip through late 1920s party preparation,

There is a winter storm building up.  The winds are blowing and the branches are falling.

Stay warm.

Snow

I was ready for some snow.  It has been damp and gloomy since before Christmas.  I mean, there is cloud cover and then there is cloud cover.  Last Wednesday it was so dark, dank and dismal that the cold was seeping through my ears and chilling my brain.  I was wearing a polar fleece headband around the house.  I made Tollhouse cookies.  That was the only way to save the day.

This morning I took the above picture.  Below is a photo from January 3rd, 2014.  I am amazed at how many background trees we have lost to the emerald ash borer.

I zoomed in a little to see if it shows better.  We have lost all of the larger trunks.  In the wide shot it looks as if the woods in the back is looming over the little trees.  That is not just because the trees were so small.  The woods was much closer to the lawn.  There is now a rough cut meadow area in the foreground.

The garden is sound asleep under the blanket of snow.  This won't last long.  The ground is wet and we have warmer temperatures on the way.  I would prefer, for the sake of the soil, that the ground remained damp and snow covered, but by this time next week, it will again be bare and frozen.

 

This week in the mail I received an order of flower seeds.  I bought pansies and primrose.  Both of those are cold tolerant, early plants.  In a week or two I will start the seeds with the intention of freeing up my grow light by mid-March for the cole crops.

How's this for a shot of spring color?

Thinking of Containers - and Shopping

 One of the favorite past times of gardeners in the cold winter months is shopping.  Seeds, tools, seed starting supplies... live plants to be shipped later.  

One of the containers that I am looking forward to most this year is the shade container I had by our firepit last year.  It was all Coleus that I started from seeds.  Cheap plants!  And I still have seeds, so this year they are technically "Free Plants".  I love the palette of red, black and chartreuse.  They got pretty big and I think adding some kind of support in there would be a good idea.  That way when they get too big late in the season I can use string to hold them all together.  I pinched these back many times earlier in the season.  That only encouraged them.  They are the "Giant Exhibition Mix" from Harris Seeds.

(that is a 16" container under there)

Last year this planter was in the spot indicated by the center arrow.  And I want to do two more in the spots indicated by the other arrows.

The containers I am using are 16" Bombay planters that Walmart used to sell.  I have a pretty good selection of them and wish I had more.  If I ever see them again I will buy as many as I can haul away!  They have held up so well.  I have them in four colors and each year I clean them well and store them away.  They are just as shiny today as the day I bought them.

The Bombay containers back in 2016

So for the center support I have had my eye on this Verona Obelisk from Gardener's Supply.  A couple of months ago I got it half off.  They are normally over priced at over $60. Yikes! I thought $30 something was a great deal.  When I received it I wished I had ordered more.  It is pretty well made and it even folds flat to store. Technically, it is a flimsy little thing.  But it is a heavy, well made, flimsy little thing.

Then one day, as I was shopping around, I found these at the At Home website.

For $14.99!

They are a similar size, but just a bit shorter.  They are made the same, but the centers are actual circles instead of ovals.  I bought two.  Even with shipping they were an excellent value compared to the Gardener's version.  

This is what they look like side by side.  I will use the taller one in the center container, and the shorter ones on each side.  

I can't wait for the day when I can pot these up.

Deciding What To Grow in the Vegetable Garden 2024

Now that the new seed catalogs are showing up in the mail, it is time to start thinking about what to grow next this year.  Again, I am using only half of the raised bed garden for veggies and leaving the other beds for pollinator friendly annuals.  I am not making many changes from last year because things went pretty well.  As always, I will do a few things differently.  I am in the mood for some fun tomatoes.

Peas, Beans, Cucumbers, Zucchini, Lettuce, Carrots:  I am doing everything exactly the same with one minor tweak.  I am going to plant my row of pole beans in two stages.  I will start in the center and plant half of my yellow and half of my green varieties.  Two weeks later I will finish off the ends of the row.  I had plenty of pole beans all year, but there was a two week lull towards the end of August, then they began blooming again.  I want to see if I can stagger their recovery period by planting at different times or if it has more to do with weather.  And I want to plant a little more of the green Seychelles than the yellow Monte Gusto because the Monte Gusto is just such a heavy producer compared to the Seychelles.

Cucumbers 2017

Tomatoes:  Although I have been planting my main crop in large containers, I still end up with a few plants in the ground.  I am going to try some more dwarf varieties in the containers but I am planning on six indeterminate plants in a raised bed using the Florida Weave method of support.  For the past couple of years I have stuck to one red variety, one yellow or bi-color, and one black or brown variety.  This year I also want to have a green and a blue variety.  It has been years since I had fun with colored tomatoes.  I also plan on buying an Early Girl plant.

Blue Beauty Tomatoes 2018

Peppers:  I am not changing anything about my two pots of hot peppers, but I am going to buy some bell pepper plants and plant them along the tomato plants.  Peppers like some filtered sun and planting them at the feet of tomatoes works well.

Bell Peppers 2019

Cole Crops:  Last year I purchased all of my cole crop plants.  The cabbages were fine, but I really missed having the yellow cauliflowers.  So I am going to go back to starting all of my plants.  This adds a month to my gardening season, but it also makes it more rewarding.

Flame Star Cauliflower

Sweet Corn:  As of right now, I am not in the mood for sweet corn.  I am not in the mood to water it every day and turn on the electric fence to keep the coons out just to yield four dozen ears, no matter how awesome they are.  I think I will take a year off and buy from the nearby farm stan.  I have many months to change my mind.

Cantaloupes:  Again - a huge commitment for a non-guaranteed return.  Last year we got most of our rain just before they ripened which watered down their taste. Weeks of excellent weather, then days of counter productive weather at just the wrong time.  I am not sure I want to water them every day and cover them every night just to get a dozen ho hum melons.  I still have seeds.  I may plant a few, but they are not high on my list of goals this year.

Sweet Potatoes:  My variety is called Mahon Yam.  It is only sold by Johnny's Seeds.  For years they were getting about $24.99 for 25 slips.  That was pretty pricey, but the variety grew really well for me. In 2022 they went up to $37.00 so I learned to start my own slips.  I wasn't going to pay $37.00 plus tax and shipping for a small harvest of sweet potatoes! Especially since not all of the 25 bedraggled, mail order slips could be expected to take. Out of curiosity, I checked the price this year.  $45.25 for 25 slips.  Holy Crap!  I will again start my own slips.  Last year I tried seven gallon containers, which were easier to keep watered than grow bags, but they weren't really deep enough.  I am going back to the 25 gallon grow bags. 

Sweet Potato Slips

Regular Potatoes: Also a no this year.  Growing your own potatoes is easy and cost effective if you put them in the ground.  If you put them in grow bags they are quite a bit of work (and can be expensive in terms of soil) for a marginal return.  It is still the best way to get some new potatoes though.

Herbs for Butterflies:  Last year I chose a random raised bed,  one where the soil was under preforming for food crops, and planted Parsley, Dill, Basil and Dara.  It is becoming a "perennial" herb bed.  The Parsley will winter over and should flower this year and planting Dill in the same place each year is wise if you don't want to fight volunteers all the time. Last year wasn't good for Dill, so I will buy extra seeds. I plan to put my Rosemary and Sage in this bed this year and also try Valerian which is another pollinator friendly, perennial herb.

Valerian from Victory Seeds

So that is my gardening plan for 2024.  I have most of my seeds, but I will probably be placing two small orders to fill in my cole crop seeds and to add a couple of fun tomato varieties.  Cabbages and Cauliflowers will need to be seeded in mid-March.  Until then, I can pour over these catalogs and dream of warm, sunny days.

Happy New Year!