Urban Gnomestead

11/08/2024

The war on sugar ants has been happening this week in my kitchen!

Used this bait to hopefully kill off the colony that is coming in from the outside.

After a couple of days my hubby sprayed flex seal on the inside of the electrical outlet.

This seemed to work last year when they came through a different outlet and had held up.

I think we might be doing this to all our outlets here soon.

11/07/2024

My queen trumpet oysters are taking off!

I was able to cut off the first large pieces on Wednesday.

I just love how mushrooms grow so quickly!

Queen oysters are my favorite oyster mushrooms to eat because they are so dense and gold their texture well.

This kit is from the wonderful

11/05/2024

I was the winner of the High Country Gardens most recent giveaway!

I won some ground cover plants called Creepy Speedwell species Veronica.

This is an excellent 3" talk creeping ground cover, perfect for over your garden rock wall, pathways, or anywhere that a nice ground cover is needed.

It will attract the bees and even hummingbirds. It's a beautiful spring blooming ground cover.

I planted mine 18-24" apart and heavily mulched with fresh woodchips.

Now they hang out for the winter and should set in some good growth this coming spring.

11/04/2024

VOTE!!

11/03/2024

This years wonder beet got harvested this week and weighed in at 2.78 pounds! 😮🤣

That's pretty wonderful if you ask me.

11/02/2024

Help us get Ridwell to all of Kitsap!

Ridwell is an at home pick up service for all things we have trouble recycling. Examples: light bulbs, batteries, plastic films, Amazon bags, threads, flat plastic lids, produce clam shells, etc.

Sign up with the link to let them know you are interested.

Help us bring Ridwell to Bremerton!

10/31/2024

Happy Halloween!

Wonder woman off to work at Roots Farm to harvest all the food I can for market on Saturday.

10/30/2024

How to make garlic powder?

What you need:
1) Food processor
2) Dehydrator (I use Excalibur)
3) Good blender (I use a Vitamix)
4) Mason Jars
5) Jar sealer (I use attachment for my food sealer)

How to:
1) Peel your large garlic cloves if you are using. I tend to use all my small cloves and don't bother peeling them because it would drive me insane.
2) Mice it all up in the food processor till it is in nice small pieces.
3) Lay out in a thin layer on your Dehydrator trays, I make sure to use my silicone mats so the garlic does not stick on the tray.
4) Set dehydrator for 95° for 24-28 hours
5) Once dried well crumple one tray at a time into a blend and work up to high speed, go till a nice powder is formed.
6) Pour into clean mason jars, if you do on a sunny day you can capture the garlic dust flying around for cool picture. 🤣
7) Seal your jars to keep air out, this will keep it from clumping and becoming a solid block.
-some people even put a little rice in with their garlic to absorb moisture or use those moisture packs.

It's that simple!

*Side note: during the dehydrating time your house will have a very strong garlic smell and will possibly burn people's eyes, like cutting onions.

Why I do this?
My house stays on the warmer 60-70 range because we have a wood stove that we use for heat. This makes it very warm and makes the garlic want to break dormancy and start to sprout. If I had a cool basement or cellar I could keep my garlic in I wouldn't need to do this.

10/30/2024

Garlic planting day!

I decided to take advantage of my day off and the sunny weather to get the garlic planted today.

I filled in 8 of my 10' long beds and 5 of my 3' long beds. Give me a total of 546 cloves planted.

I ran out of garlic to finish 2 of my 10' beds. They currently have snap dragons in them that are still blooming. I think I might leave these 2 beds then for straw flowers to be planted in the spring.

If all goes well I should have 40-50 spots available for a garlic braiding class in July.

I did a soil test on my garlic beds and everything was within perfect range for planting. I still added some alfalfa meal in the holes before planting the garlic bulbs.

I will fertilize the garlic with alfalfa and liquid dish fertilizer every 6" of growth from now until May.

10/29/2024

The rainbow last night while I was soaking in the hot tub made for a great view.

10/28/2024

I grew some baby ginger this year with great success!! I will forever be growing ginger now every year.

Baby ginger doesn't have the skins yet and has a more mild flavor and is very tender.

I was able to make a lot of great things with it this year.

I used the food processor and minced 90% of it to make:

🫚1 tbsp frozen ice cube servings - this will be used for when ginger is needed for recipes or even making fresh ginger tea.

🫚Tincture for cold and flu season for the next couple of years. Equal parts ginger and alcohol. Will take about 8 weeks before this should be ready.

🫚Rosemary Thyme Oxmeal from which has good fresh ginger in it.

I then used the food processor to make thick slices of fresh ginger and turned that into candied ginger pieces.

10/28/2024

Vampire repellent in the works!

A.K.A

GARLIC PROCESSING!

Today I separated all my garlic. Leaving behind all the large cloves and taking all the small ones for processing.

I throw in all the small cloves (even with the papers still one) to the food processor. Mince it down till it's nice and fine. Then, spread it out on my dehydrator racks.

Set the temp to 95° and the timer for 26 hours.

After that point the papers will blow off easily and the garlic should be dried well. Might need more time but only time will tell.

Once the garlic is very well dried I will blend it in my vitamix to make a nice yummy garlic powder to use through the winter season.

This saves me time honestly from just peeling and using the cloves later. I hate peeling small garlic and then I always need 20 of them to make enough garlic.

10/26/2024

Time to harvest the first batch of sh*taki mushrooms!!!

10/23/2024

If you came to my most recent garden talk and got yourself a mushroom kit..
HOW IS IT GROWING??

I just started my sh*taki log in the grow chamber on Monday evening and it was already pinning by yesterday and today they are growing!

Remember to keep them misted and in good humidity.

10/22/2024

Red Wine Cap Spawn for sale $30 each

I have 9 bags left of this garden mushroom and now is a great time to get your mushroom area started for next spring flush.

Easiest mushroom to grow
👉🏼Full sun or part shade
👉🏼Woodchips, straw, or leafs is all that's needed. Woodchips are the best though.

Message me if interested!!

10/17/2024

Final HOT pepper of the season... Cayenne

I only had 1 plant of this variety to give it a try. I was able to squeeze it in RAISED METAL GARDEN BEDS with my OYA CLAY WATERING POTS and I am hoping I will be happy.

From the one plant I was able to get just under 50 peppers, which is CRAZY!

I decided to use them all to make a fermented hot sauce!

I just cut off the stem and chopped the whole pepper. I was able to get a little over 400g of pepper mash. Add in a 3% salt ratio. Mixed well in the jar. Added a glass weight on top. Used a fermented lid that allows me to pull out all the extra air from the head space. Now it sits for a few or so.

Afterwards I believe it is as easy as blending and straining and BAMMM hopefully good hot sauce.

10/16/2024

Next pepper up... JALAPENO

Again these were grown in my RAISED METAL BIRDIE BEDS with my OYA CLAY WATERING POTS.

I got gigantic jalapeno peppers and had a wonderful kick to them.

The first thing I did with the Jalapenos was smoke about 40 of them and am letting them soak in a homemade Adobo sauce. They will rest in the fridge for about a week. I will then turn them into Smoked Chipotle Tabasco sauce.

The second thing I did with them was just to pressure can a bunch of diced jalapenos for Taco Tuesday Nights.

The third thing I did was make some red and green salsa.

Mmm...I love jalapenos!!

10/15/2024

Grew some Thai Chili Peppers this year in my BIRDIE RAISED BEDS with my OYA CLAY WATERING POTS and they didn't disappoint!! 🔥🌶️🔥🌶️🔥🌶️🔥🌶️🔥🌶️🔥🌶️🔥🌶️

The raised metal beds and oya pots allowed for good drainage, extra warmth, and perfect localized watering.

I left some of the red but mostly the green, which are still spicy, and I will be stringing them up to dry. I will then grind them into either red chili powder or pepper flakes.

I took a majority of the red peppers and made a homemade sweet chili sauce that is actually spicy, unlike the store stuff. I have enough minced peppers to make a triple batch and I still don't think it will stick around that long!