Yeah, we've got a great little construction rental place here. It only cost me $18 for a day. I can even rent a small tractor with brush hog if I get to that point. =0) Rented a trencher for running a new water line a couple of years ago... they're very nice there, very patient with explaining how to run all these machines.
If I remember right, Territorial sends out their fall catalogue (with all its garlic varieties) in April. Hard to think about fall planting when I'm just starting to put plants out here, but the descriptions of all the garlics bring me around...
LOL Jay
March on the Homestead
AZGrammie, here's a yoghurt recipe I used to use years ago that always gave really good results:
Sprite’s Yoghurt
1 - 1 tsp gelatin in 1/4 cup warm water; add boiling water to 1 cup level, and 2 or 3 tbsps. honey. Set aside.
2 - Mix 3 cups of milk powder + 3 cups warm water, or 5 cups warm whole milk: cow, goat, etc.) + 1 14-oz. can evaporated milk.
Mix 1 + 2 together, adding 1 cup (or 2, for thinner yoghurt) warm water and 3 tbsps. yoghurt as starter (Dannon)
Put yoghurt in covered pan (stoneware or pottery works well) in preheated 300 degree oven, turning oven off immediately, and let stand 6 - 12 hours.
If still not set, heat oven so yoghurt gets warm again, add 3 more tbsps. yoghurt starter, and stir. Turn off oven and wait again.
*****
I used to make goat cheese, too, but we don't have goats anymore!
Jay, go to my page (clicking on my name takes you there) and scroll down to the list of articles I have written. I list taste and storage qualities of a good many varieties, probably over a hundred (out of over 600 available) and sources for garlic to plant. There are articles on hardnecks (usually northern), softnecks (usually southern) and the "new" Creoles (which are NOT from louisiana!).
I only planted 5 varieties last fall: Siberian, Susanville, Red Toch, Keeper and Shantung Purple. If I plant too many varieties, I can't narrow down what does best in growing, taste and storage. It may take me 5 years to develop 2-3 I want to aggressively market.
Yes, it is very hard to think of fall planting when I haven't even started spring planting! I only mentioned ordering early as so many varieties get sold out fast, long before time to ship.
So you have to plant garlic in the fall for it to grow in the summer??? Oh darn... I love garlic and can eat it raw... Well something to think about next year.
Sorry.
greenhouse_gal, thanks for the yoghurt recipe. Do you have a cheese press? So far the only cheeses I have made were really simple-minded, heat the milk or yoghurt (store-bought in my case, alas), add vinegar or lemon juice, strain. More or less. The plain milk cheese is pretty bland, I usually use milk just as it is starting to turn, don't want to use it for cheese if it is stll drinkable. (I live a long way from a grocery store.) I have culture to make mozarrelli but haven't tried it. I never seem to have enough time! They say you don't know what busy is until you retire, and they are so right.
Miss Jestr, you eat garlic raw? Wow, you must be single! LOL I planted 3 elephant garlic bulbs in the greenhouse last fall and they didn't do anything but didn't "melt" either, so I replanted them in my kitchen garden.
Did you know that Elephant garlic isn't a garlic at all? It is a leek that bulbs. I tried to grow some 2 years ago but they rotted in the heavy clay.
AZgrammie, I used to have small white plastic baskets that I would allow my cheese to firm up in. Then I'd put them on a ripening board. The flavor wasn't particularly good until I somehow developed the proper molds on that board, and after that the cheeses were excellent. However, this was way before I went to France and got to try the French goat cheeses, some of which I can buy now in the supermarket, so I have no idea how my old efforts would have compared to what's produced there.
We made a cheese press using a can, boards, some dowels, and a heavy weight of some sort. We also bought supplies from Hoegger's, and I'm amused to see that they're still advertising in country-style magazines. This was all when our kids were little and they're in their thirties now!
If garlic should only be planted in the fall, what about those spring-planting bulbs they sell in some of the catalogues? I've tried them without much success, though.
MsJestr... you might double check with your local Master Gardener program or county extension agent... where you are might be very different, down in the lower altitudes of AZ. Fall planting may be for places with a freeze... when was the last time Kingman had a hard freeze?
I'll check out the articles, Darius. I really appreciate your experience. Thanks!
Yeppers AZ Grannie I am single... Cant find a cowboy to put up with me...LOL
I really love pickled garlic and I have a terra cotta pot taht I put in the micro wave with some butter and spices and cook then eat like candy....
LOL, at least you can be sure of not having vampires after you!
Yeppers or worms.....
You worry much about vampires, Darius? Maybe that's why you plant all that garlic, eh? You live in a neighborhood with handsome but dangerous vampires... they're always handsome, you know. =0)
Bleh, bleh, bleh...
Jay }:o|=
LOL!
Jayryunen,
We get down to 20 degrees for about a week or two in January, and still have below freezing nights here now. I was suprized we got a few days of really good snow, I had to leave work early just so I could get home..and one day I could not get to work.
I am in the High Desert around 6000 ft
I thought Kingman was lower... I mean, on the freeway it's right after Needles. =0) Still, I'd double check on the garlic season there. You might be able to get away with it.
Then again, maybe you should stop working so hard to chase off those devilishly handsome vamps... I mean, they are all the rage now, think how you'd be the envy of... er... well, every teenager who reads, anyway. LOL
"OH, you're dating a vampire? How dreamy. Is he as hot as they say? (squeal) Like everything you read just makes them sound soooo insatiable {shiver}"
Blech, blech, blech...
Jay
LOL Jayryunen, I need a man that can Ride, Rope and use a hammer, not one that is afraid of being out in the daylight... Oh and that can keep up with me and Billy.
It is on the road to needles, but coming from Needles, you are gradually climbing up. We are about 80 miles from Needles.
Like I said, right after Needles... the only thing between you and there is that funny giant golfball house. And the turn-off for donkey-town. I thought the only hill was that ridge just outside of town... goes to show what driving will do to you. =0)
Well, except for the daylight bit, I don't see why you wouldn't want a vamp (you forgot to mention shoot). Do they have evening/nighttime SASS events? And just think of the competitive advantage a vamp would have in the rough stock events. What a nightlife you could have! LOL
Hmmm, with a hired vamp in overalls, I could get twice as much done around here. Overalls and a ballcap... yep, that's the vamp for me.
LOL
You guys are too funny.
Come on, AZ, describe yer dream vamp... LOL You could keep yours in that freezer during the day...
This message was edited Mar 17, 2009 5:21 PM
LOL, my dream vamp? First of all, he must have teeth. Vampires do have teeth, right? A vampire who could get up off the couch and move around would be great. If he could fix my tractor tire, that would be an extra. And I would really like it if he could play a musical instrument and/or sing. He should like to go fishing and read. Both at the same time would be okay, that's what I do.
Yeah, and if he is really a HOT vampire, I could put him in the freezer and see if he could open it from the inside and get out. If not, I'd let him out, don't want him to cool off too much!
My neighborhood is called Antelope Valley. Know what you'd get if you put all the single guys in Antelope Valley into one room? A full set of teeth!
Teeth are not necessary for drinking beer. And a downright handicap in a brawl. Put all the guys in our valley in one room... you've got the bar. LOL
Now, the most wonderful thing about vamps seems to be they are cultured... they read, they sing, and they can dance. Alcohol does not effect them, so no worries about DWI. I've never heard of one fishing, but hey, after the first 500 years of immortality, I bet they'd be willing to try anything to stave off the boredom (ennui seems to be particularly severe in the older vamps, who of course don't age, just get pedantic)
I'm sure there's a nice hunky city vamp out there just dying to retire to the country and try some wild blood... because of course we are only interested in the very moral vamps who suck the blood of rats and people we don't like. =0)
LOL, you know a lot more about vampires than I do, Jay. A hunky, singing, fishing, dancing, reading, beer drinking vampire -- that works for me! I even have packrats if "my" vampire lusts for blood!
I confess... I read a lot of mind-candy junk. I've even been known to slum around with a little chick lit. Then I read something last century, like George Eliot (love "Adam Bede") or Thackery, just to remember what compound sentences are like. Then a little something non-fiction... Small Farmer's Journal, Countryside, Four Season Gardening, then back to drivel. =0)
Basic junk food literary pyramid... the base is pop fiction, the tip is "literature". LOL
I've got "Dracula" on tape... what a hoot! A great read/listen for the halloween season! =0)
LOL AZGrannie, you do reside in Arizona.... HOHOHOH
I got my goat cheese making kit a few days ago, and today I went to get a gallon of goat milk from a friend. Who happens to live waaaaay up in the mountains.
Getting the goat milk was interesting. Very rustic. Met my friend, R, at his house and he handed me the milking pail while he got the dog food for his dogs. Er... I wasn't really expecting this; he's always had it ready before. I'm wearing clogs... not the best in a barn yard. LOL But I delicately mince along behind (in general I am not a mincer, and I do have on my Cabela's camo pants with a beat-up flannel shirt, but clogs just lead to mincing in the manure) and we wade through the spring that has sprung up just outside the corral gate (mince, mince, hop) to be swarmed by 5 does all wanting to be first for the milking and GRAIN, which is in an inconveniently (is there any other kind) arranged milking pen. So my job is to only let one doe through at a time, wrestle the others back, not let the two kids out that have been isolated in the milking pen so their mom can bag up, and keep up my side of the conversation, all the while not getting goat manure in my CLOGS. Nooo problemo. LOL So R is milking and talking and I'm talking watching the goat hair fall in the milk and wondering if that's just how it is or if a little brushing might help that. Who knows? I haven't died yet from this milk.
So R gets the does milked in about 15 min (wow!), we turn all the babies in with all the moms, we manuveur our way through all the gates, not slipping in the spring that sprung, the manure slop that's a result (mince, mince, hop), feed the sheep (Lincoln and Churro), talk about the mountain lions and coyotes eating lambs, and go back to the house, except we don't go in, we just pour the milk through the filter into my jars on the tail gate of his truck while talking about how to keep the goats from girdling his fruit trees.
Like I said, very rustic. =0) Now the milk is chilling and I'm going to try to make chevre with it.
Jay
Ohhh Jay, I can just picture that little slice of heaven... Thanks for sharing.
Too cute... maybe I should by some clogs?
Oh darlin' clogs are essential. To what, I'm not sure, but I wear mine all the time, except when it's muddy, then I wear those slip-on Muck shoes. I love that I can just slip them on and off as I am constantly in and out of the house and we have {{sigh}} dusty rose pink carpet that we TRY to keep half-way decent looking. LOL
But I do have to remind myslef they are not suitable, downright dangerous for working with the donkeys and climbing on ladders. If I die in a barnyard wreck, it will be because I forgot to change out of my clogs...
MsJstr.... no, I haven't even beGUN to describe that little slice of heaven. =0) It's on a mountaintop, the whole place has gradually, probably over generations, been built out of scavenged boards or what was originally bought new has been recycled and reused so many times that it's hard to recognize its original function. This is no Mother Earth News kind of joint, more Countryside. =0) The manure and dropped hay has accumulated in the goat pens for so long, it's time to reset the fence... the goats can almost step over it. I was looking at the house, figuring it was one of those 'elaborated' old trailer houses, but I couldn't make out the original structure, it's just kept growing and growing and growing... a very organic style of architecture. LOL
Believe it or not, I love those kind of places. Because they are truly homes in the way that properties that are maintained for their market value never are. As fallen down and ramshackle as it is, it is R & C's home, their place, their life. They are good, kind, make-do kind of folks that are working hard to actually rejuvenate agriculture in the valley. C has been instrumental in getting a wool and rug weaving cooperative going, which just recently got accredited to evaluate alpaca fiber, and now they are moving into sustainable beef, lamb, and goat meat.
But it is VERY rough-hewn. =0)
My Kind of place.... Kind of like my place and the most importaint thing is it is homey.... I love living like that...
Well, you can certainly see from my pics we are no shining example of neat and tidy...
Folks just don't appreciate the art required to obtain this kind of 'stead...
LOL
I got my lettuce and tatsoi seedlings planted in the coldframe today. The chard and beets I did a couple of days ago are looking good.
The ocean is tidy enough! hehehe
I have shoes that I use only for outside chores. I heard you should for biohazard precautions. :/ I would like to get some muck boots. I want green froggy ones.
Do Crocs count? LOL, I'm never so dirty as when I forget to change my Crocs for boots in the garden. My daily attire is jeans, skinny tee, flannel overshirt and my old hiking boots.
I have an interview for a part-time job next Wednesday and I'm wondering if I can get away with my 'better' hiking boots or try and find a pair of shoes. (I have sandals but it's much too cold for them now.)
That bio-hazard remark stopped me for a minute, then I remembered you've got chickens. =0) That's why, right?
I'm pretty sure I'm a bio-hazard disaster. Fortunately, right now I don't have chickens and as far as I know there's no lurking jackass flu waiting to leap the species barrier and make us all bray uncontrollably...
The ocean is very messy, what are you talking about? All that frothing and foaming and flotsam and jetsom. LOL
We must have the same fashion consultant, Darius. =0) And crocs are clogs as far as I'm concerned.
Oh yeah, which shoes, which beat up shoes? LOL I've got a going to town pair for when we go to dinner or meet with city folks... clogs. LOL
I have a great pair of hiking boots, but I only wear them when I know I'll be outside for awhile, because they drag in sooo much stuff.
Forgot to say... good luck with the interview!
This message was edited Mar 20, 2009 3:05 PM
Yup, thats what I meant. Chicken biohazards. Jackass flu? I have had that before. Not cool. I have crocs for gardening. Luv them. And I dont know why you couldnt wear dress work boots for the interview. Or pick up a pair of shoes. hehehe Good luck with it!! Well, at least the ocean HAS tides! LOL
Yeah, well, we have wind. That'll clean up anything not tied down. LOL
Read Jay's post about mincing & hopping and mucking about in clogs, all so he could make chevre cheese . . . and realized how inelegant the cheese I am making today out of slightly soured milk is going to be in comparison. But I do have chickens, and if I don't like the way it turns out, the chickens will love it anyway. 8^)
The Mason bees are alive & well, have tunneled their way out of 2 of the 3 tubes I bought. I think there were only supposed to be a few in each tube. Anyway, several little black bees and several little golden bees are buzzing frantically around the Manchurian & Moorpark apricot trees, Nanking cherry bush, and Japanese plum. There also seem to be a very few honeybees, hallalujah. So maybe this year, fruit? Of course it is supposed to snow on Sunday, I will cover them with blankets and see if that helps.
Hooray! So glad to hear about the bees surviving; that's encouraging as I was thinking of getting some one of these days.
You may be envious of my chevre, but I don't know how to make cheese out of soured milk... so do tell! I'm all ears!