Category — Jim's Thoughts

We’ve finally arrived at the rose garden stage of gardening. I used to think that only gardeners with a certain amount of experience and maturity could grow roses. It seems that we’ve arrived at this point, after 25 years of gardening, sort of by surprise– a little bit like the surprise one feels when one finally concedes that perhaps one is middle-aged. Hmmm…
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A friend of mine, a good friend in fact, said “Twenty-Minute Jim, you’re a big fat liar! There’s NO WAY you plant that garden of yours in only 20 minutes a day.” I wasn’t offended. I didn’t even puff out my cheeks or stamp my feet in protest. I knew for a fact that this year, we’d spent quite a bit more than 20 minutes a day so far in the garden. But I don’t think our experience so far this year essentially disproves our hypothesis (i.e. that a lovely organic, urban kitchen garden can be created by two folks working 20 minutes a day.) Here’s why: [Read more →]

Today was a gloriously sunny day so decided to “fire up” the ol’ box-style solar cooker while we worked around the garden.

The first round was a batch of “Solar Granola Bars” and a broccoli cheese “Solar Soufflée.” This first round cooked in roughly 3 hours (11:30 - 2:30) Janice has posted the recipe for the Granola Bars elsewhere on the site — and frankly, I think they taste a bit too good to be saddled with such a depressingly healthy name. To me, they’re some kind of brownie. The soufflée contains three eggs whipped with a bit of shredded cheese and some chopped up broccoli leftover from dinner last night. This batch also had a generous addition of fresh garlic. Coat the cooking vessel with something to keep it from sticking (a spray of Pam, a bit of olive oil, butter…) The great thing about solar eggs is that they fluff as they cook so their texture is quite wonderful.

As we were eating our eggs, our daughter tasted them and wanted some for herself so she made another batch. Since the cooker was going to be tended, I quartered a couple potatoes and halved two small onions and drizzled them with oil. These “Solar Roasted” vegetables will be a great start on hash browns for tomorrow. The really nice thing about the box cooker I built is its capacity. We could have easily had another pot in there.

It’s supposed to nice most of the weekend. I wonder what we’ll make tomorrow.

We planted the peas today which worked out to a nice 20 minute task. About a week ago, we’d scraped away the mulch from the soil where we intended to plant. The sun was able to warm the soil up to a pea-friendly 50 degrees F (10 degrees C) We were able to check the soil temperature with this fancy soil thermometer we got years ago with our CompostTumbler. [Read more →]

I suspected that it wouldn’t work at least not as well as I’d dreamed. The sprouting trays I’d so carefully set up with clear plastic lids kept in enough moisture that the surface of some peat pots is now covered with a downy coating of mold. The good news however [Read more →]