Happy New Year

 

Took my snowshoes from another Christmas and my hiking poles from our Swiss adventure and hit the trails. Only tripped once and it was those darn sticker bushes, they get me even when there is no snow. It was a full-body work out for sure. The snowshoe bindings aren't the best(too much side to side play), but for the number of times I use them they are fine. I wouldn't want to be out all day with them or they would get real annoying real fast. You can move surprisingly fast with snowshoes, you just have to remember to lift your feet up. I did a medium jog uphill, but only briefly. A quick steady walk was more my speed and I stopped a lot to look for fauna and catch my breath. There were a few steep spots that I wouldn't have been able to traverse without the hiking poles and they prevented at least 2 other falls. I didn't take Trudee, so don't tell her or she will be more put out than she already is.

 

Merry Christmas

 

 

 

A 6 foot Fraser fir, last year we had a taller Douglas fir. New for this year are LED tree lights, they look yellowish in the photos, but look whitish-blue in real life. We only decorated the tree with red ornaments. Good thing the tree was small or else we wouldn't have had enough red ornaments.

Family Farm Winter 1988

Here are some photos my dad took.

 

Looking from this view the greenhouses are,

• Number 6, perpendicular to us in this photo. The largest, installed in 1923, at least that was written in the main concrete walkway inside. Poinsettias, geraniums, iris, mums, pretty much everything was grown here. Behind Number 6 are from left to right,
• Number 1, it had a lean-to on the left and evaporative cooling(AKA Swamp cooling). It had beds laid out lengthwise, originally they were soil filled and we grew cut Mums there and sold them in the NYC flower market around 28th street. The soil in the beds was loosened using a tiller and it was inevitable the tiller would break through the bottom of the bench. We would then run temporary steam pipes from the boiler and sterilize the soil with the steam.
• Number 2, it had lengthwise beds at first, which were later replaced with wire benches. For Easter we grew Cinnerias, they filled the whole house and it was beautiful when they were all in bloom and none had been shipped out yet.
• Number 3, it was split in half with 2 heat zones, no swamp cooler though. It did have large hatches in the masonry walls on the right side of this photo, they looked like gun ports from a 'ship of the line'. They helped in transferring plants in and out and for cooling. Number 3 for some reason had the best icicles in winter, great for sword fights and the javelin throw. No one ever got hurt amazingly.
• There was a tiny greenhouse connecting Number 2 and Number 3, it was set up for growing seedlings and had a misting system on timers. Using it as a shortcut was like playing Russian Roulette. It was the domain of my Uncle Hen. He was a true farmer, he had a large plot behind his house where he had vegetables and fruit trees. My Grandfather pursued musical interests when he was through for the day with work.
• Number 4, lengthwise beds, swamp cooler. Originally it had dirt aisles, but I got to dig out the aisles, build some forms, mix concrete and lay some concrete. Everything going out and in, in 5 gallon buckets.
• Number 5, lengthwise beds, swamp cooler. Mainly used for foliage plants, it was very jungle like. It had a lean-to that was scary, always wet and it seemed like the kind of place one would find snakes.
• Number 7, fiberglass covered Quonset hut style mit swamp cooler. Benches were perpendicular to the center aisle and were low, below the knee.
• Number 8, plastic covered Quonset hut style, swamp cooler, side aisle, benches were higher than Number 7 and might have been rolling benches.
• Retail house, unheated poly covered Quonset hut, between the barn and the Boiler shed. When we sold Retail it held plants for sale. When there were customers, I would always get my Uncle Herman so I wouldn't have to do math and make change. It was always called the Retail house even after we stopped the retail business. It was also used as a place to work out of the weather, I built a lot of benches there.

The property currently looks like this

 

• Shed for Numbers 1 - 3, connected the 3 greenhouses at the bottom left of the above photo. It had room for dirt trailers, the fertilizer/pesticide room was there and the large walk-in refrigerator was there as well. There was a bathroom at the very end, it was freezing in the winter and there was only running cold water.
• Shed for 4 & 5, usual place for potting, had a work bench and grinder on which others sharpened their knives and I dulled mine. A staging area for shipments during major holidays. There was an office which was a mess, it held a roll-top desk that was falling apart and had all sorts of tools and crap on it and in every nook and cranny.

 

 

When it snowed and I was working I got to shovel around the greenhouses and the sidewalk along the street too. One year I had a jacket whose sleeves were a bit short and gloves that barely covered my wrists. At 9 o'clock break, the patch of exposed skin was raised and numb to the touch. I was given a break inside for awhile and finished the walks up later. I probably got better gloves at lunch. Usual work day was from 7AM to 5PM, with a short break at 9AM and 3PM and an hour at noon for lunch.

Northern Spain Pigout

 

Finished “Everything but the Squeal” this week and found I had learned a lot. The book is focused on Galicia, the northwest region of Spain. The author visits crazy Carnival celebrations, dying small villages, Catholic pilgrimage sites and some of the major cities all the while searching for a piece of pork he hasn’t yet checked off his 3 foot pig pie chart. Most of the pork served sounded good except for some from the innards collection or where the meat to bone ratio was rather small. Things I learned,

- The Castro brothers (of Cuba) are from Galicia

Cervantes the author is reportedly from Galicia

- Santiago means Saint James

- The emblem of Saint James is a scallop shell

- There is a small train across Northern Spain (FEVE)

- A version of the bagpipes is played in Galicia

- The owner of Zara clothing company is Galician

- Franco was born in Galicia

- Laza has a crazy Carnival; it includes mud, ash and ants and later boiled pig heads.

- Grelos is a green from the turnip family that is a staple in Galician cooking.

- There are a lot of food festivals in Galicia

A Galician I know personally had also told me a few of these facts.

The chapters are a fairly quick read and you could skip a chapter if you didn’t have an interest in the topic the chapter was covering. One aim of the book is to cover eating pig pieces so you really won’t know which bit you missed if you do skip chapters. Along the way you will learn a lot about Galicia and the culture. I had already wanted to visit and the book did a very good job of deepening that desire.

 

 

We had been to an authentic Galician restaurant on Portobello Road in London this past March. The favorite daughter who lives in London had a friend who was a boy who was from Galicia. He took us to the restaurant and ordered us food, but couldn’t stay because of a mix-up. The food was excellent and some was very different from anything we had had before. I would definitely go back.

 

Old Fashioned Poinsettias

I was reading a post that mentioned Poinsettias on Growing with Plants and the author said that a lot of plants sold today are treated with growth retardants and how it is hard to find tall, old-fashioned Poinsettias. Reminded me of the Poinsettias my family grew. We had a wholesale florist and did treat some plants, but the Poinsettias were not treated*. We grew huge Poinsettias, the parent plants were started in August and cuttings were taken off the parents to plant in various sizes of pots and plant configurations. There were single stemmed, multi-stemmed, and Poinsettia Trees. At a certain point we had to cover the plants at night so that they would be in color for Christmas.

Here are some tree Poinsettias in the background and 2 other sizes. We used drip irrigation after the plants reached a certain size and were spaced out. That was something I did a lot of at the farm, space out plants and set up drip irrigation. For some reason we always moved plants after they were watered. Heavy, wet and muddy, thanks Gramps.

 

This is a photo of greenhouse number 6, not very creative, but that's how we referenced them. It was the largest greenhouse and this is the view of the fan half. Just before Christmas the whole greenhouse would be filled with poinsettias on every bench and on plant stands on the benches.

 

This is a view of the other half of number 6. At this point in time we had motorized cloth pulling systems, the drums for the cables are visible in the top left quadrant of the photo. Prior to that, 2 people had to pull cloth over each and every bench at night and in the morning pull it back. When you were in a rush the cloth would usually get caught on something and tear and there would be cursing. I learned a lot working at the Farm, besides how to curse. I built some of the benches shown, every other bench was a rolling bench which increased the area available for growing plants by removing half of the aisles.

 

And here are the Poinsettias in bloom.

 

 

 

 

 

This is one pot. We had a customer that supplied Macys and other large department stores in NYC and we grew some special large Poinsettias for them.

 

Photos were taken in 1986 and 1987 by my father. The Farm was sold in 1992 to the City of New York and it is still in use, minus some of the greenhouses and outbuildings. The city grows native plants for use in parks and other natural areas.

* - Well most were not.

Pastis

I started a batch of Pastis about 2 weeks ago and I finished it up today. It ain't bad so here it with a recipe. Slight amber green color.

 

Straight shot.

 

Simple Syrup added.

 

A splash of water. Not as cloudy as the real thing. Smells and tastes like Pastis though.

 

Ingredients:

750ml straight grain alcohol (190 or 151 proof) I think I purchased 190.

2 tablespoon anise seed

1 tablespoon fennel seed

1 cinnamon stick

10 clove buds

6 whole star anise

2 teaspoon cardamon pods

2 teaspoon coriander seed

1. Dump all the above in a large glass jar that closes tightly. Be careful around sparks and open flames.
2. Let sit in a cool dark place for at least 2 weeks.
3. Strain out all the debris.
4. Dilute the concoction with lower proof vodka till it is at an acceptable mouth burning alcohol level. In France, it is traditionally drunk diluted with water, so don't worry if it is a bit on the strong side. Public Safety Announcement: Don't drink the Grain Alcohol straight. Bad things WILL happen and it will be posted on youtube!
5. Add cooled simple syrup to taste. Simple syrup = 1 part sugar added to 1 part boiling water.
6. Sit back and enjoy.

Guess the dish

Saturday there was some serious cooking going on at mi casa, not by me mind you, I was just sous-chef. Let's see if you can figure out the main course. The Pan. Don't jump to conclusions. Just a few ingredients. The chorizo is just showing at the bottom left hand corner of the photo and the rice is not yet measured out. There are clams under the mussels at the back of the photo and a few other items out of frame. Sorry, no hints yet. Brown some chicken. Stir some sofrito. (anyone alliteration averse?) Drop in some seafood. I know, this is a hard dish to figure out. and in minutes it's. Paella for 2. Actually it would serve more than 2, but we couldn't wait to christen the dish and we were also hoping my favorite daughter who will be attending UMASS at Amherst next semester would show up. It took about 2 hours total to prepare, but it was excellent and well worth it. On my own this weekend, I started some bacon, started a batch of pastis(French anise liqueur), baked an Irish Tea Brick* and sautéd some sauerkraut for my lunches this week. Irish Tea Brick - Soak 1 cup raisins, 1 cup cranberries, 1 cup dark brown sugar in 1/2 cup of hot tea overnight. (Lapsang souchong or holiday tea) For this batch I used Republic of Tea's "Comfort and Joy Tea". The next day Sift together 2 cups flour, 1 teaspoon baking power and 1 teaspoon pumpkin spices or any spice mix you might want. Then add 3 beaten eggs into the fruit mix and slowly add the flour mix, dump into a loaf pan. Bake for 90 minutes at 325 degrees F or until a tooth pick comes out super clean. The sauerkraut has been cooked with dark beer, maple syrup, caraway seeds, butter and olive oil in a proprietary manner. On a non-food related topic, I dug some of the potted alpines into the ground for the winter to keep them warm. Also cut and edged the grass for the last time this year, I hope and raked some leaves. Oh and I think I might have done some laundry. * - Real name Irish Tea Brack. I like my Brack dry and dense hence Brick. All arm modeling by my best friend.

October 2010 Flowers

Don't quite have as many blooms as I might like in the yard, but it just means I have to buy more plants.

 

Fall Blooming Crocus

 

Something Cool Rose

 

Coral Bell foliage, this one has very pale pink almost white flowers, but the foliage is more interesting.

 

Latest Coral Bell addition, it is supposed to have dark red flowers.

 

Latest trough planted up, just waiting for the soil to settle before adding gravel mulch. Probably will use small black aquarium gravel. The next trough I have planned will be more square, not exactly square, but less natural than this one.

 

Saxifrage, Paniculata minutifolia "red backed spider'

 

Another Saxifrage, this one is also in the same trough. It is either cotyledon 'Pyramidalis' or paniculata 'cockscomb'. I dropped the tags and can't tell the difference now. The other is the third Saxifrage in the trough. Neither looks like the tag anymore. Cyclamen leaves are all up now and I expect the flowers soon.

EZ Stone Troughs

1. Buy Stone 2. Cut top off of stone 3. Drill big holes around perimeter 4. Chistle out what's left First Attempt The Tools of the trade. The stone (pumice) is lightweight and easy to work with, but is very sharp.

Wavehill Gardens

Wavehill, www.wavehill.org, a New York Public Garden. Just a bit north of the Cloisters, exit 21 off the Henry Hudson Parkway.

Switched to an iMac and have not yet found a blog tool I like yet, so here are photos without my blathering.

Wavehill is not as large as NY Botanical Garden or the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, but is more of a local park. There was yoga going on and family events, so if you live nearby, it would be ideal.

The alpine house was small and the trough garden area was smaller than I had expected it to be. The troughs don't look much different than my troughs, just bigger.