Home Grown Food

Romano Beans First Harvest

2010-07-05T11:16:00.000-07:00

I just finished the first harvest of my Romano beans at my Tiburon house and they look great! Thanks again Wayne for the seeds a couple of years ago. Oh, also I harvested a zucchini that was starting to get a little big and the plums are from my Santa Rosa plum tree at our Sonoma home.These beans are the best just fresh sautéed in a little olive oil and garlic.
Have a Great Day!!
Frank

Great Day for Solar Generation & Happy 4th of July

2010-07-04T23:00:00.000-07:00

I just thought I would show what a Great Day of Solar generation looks like.
We consumed 33.6 kW's (red) and produced 41.5 kW's (green)
The interesting point is we pay the extra to have a Time Of Use meter which charges different rates depending on Time of day. We over-generate power during the Peek Period Noon to 6pm which is prime time and we get credited @ $0.28/kW and the power we use off-peak only costs $0.09/kW. So for every kW we over-produce during peek period we get to use nearly 3 kW's during off peak times. For June that meant that we under-produced our usage by 200+ kW's (we used 200+ kW's of there off peek poser) but still got a $5 credit for the entire month.

We were at our Sonoma home celebrating the day with some friends around the pool so we didn't use much power all day at our Tiburon home but, you can see that we came home at 9pm after the local fireworks.

Snap shots of my Tiburon Gardens progress

2010-06-25T14:44:00.000-07:00

I have two gardens one at our Tiburon CA home and an acre to play with at our Sonoma 2nd home. I decided to take a few pictures of the Tiburon garden today.

I'm just starting to see RED in the new strawberry patch LOL. I had an area above my raised beds that was easy to turn into a bed of its own. So, a dozen ever-bearing strawberry latter and a few sacks of compost I have ever so sweet strawberries.

Then we come to Wayne's Beans (I like to say it like the movie "Wayne's World" LOL) they are some of the best Pole style Romano Beans I have ever found they came from Italy and I was lucky enough to get a few last year. I saved seeds from them and now have my own supply.

They have some 3" pods already and I've started trimming them at 6' high.

Our Tiburon house right on the San Francisco bay is the perfect climate for Artichokes and I found a steep slope under my raised beds for a few Artichokes and Tomatillos. They look very happy and I've already got a few artichokes.

The weather is so nice I always have a few containers on the back south-west facing deck. I made them like the Earth-Box design with a 3" reservoir of water on the bottom with a small area where the dirt has contact with the water to wick the water up into the whole container. Works great when you leave of forget to water for a couple of days. This is my herb garden with oregano, sage, cilantro, basil and chives in it.

I'm always experimenting with unusual plants to grow and this is my attempt at growing pineapples in Norther California. I wasn't hard to root them just cut off the top greens and peel the bottom leaves off till you can see 3/4" of the bear stalk. Soak the bottom 1" or so in a glass of water and it will root in a few weeks. Then transplant into a 12" pot and wait 1 to 2 years and make sure to bring it in if frost is a possibility.

Fava Beans & Elephant Garlic Done - Giant Pumpkins just Starting

2010-06-25T10:25:00.000-07:00

I grew the Fava Beans mainly for next years seeds. I only planted 15 plants and had several meals of fresh Faba beans. Most the plants were dry so I pulled them all out and harvested the dried seeds and left the rest to dry in the barn. I was amazed that I got over 500 bean seeds from those few plants and have more pods drying in the barn. No I didn't count them but I did count one small bowl full and then counted how many bowls went into the Jar.

I also pulled out a few of the elephant garlic plants to test them to see if it is time to harvest. They looked good with only a few outside skins left on them so I'll pull the rest next time I get a chance.

I finished the starting irrigation lines on the Giant Pumpkins and too a picture to keep track of their growth.

The stem of the plant on the left is right at 2" in diameter at the ground. Hoping for a 500 lb. Pumpkin or more this year.

Artichokes season has Started

2010-06-24T17:13:00.000-07:00

Early this Spring I put down a few sheets of old plywood at the end of one of my tomato trellises to kill off the weeds and such for my Artichoke Patch.

I got 50 globe artichoke seeds off of eBay and started them with my 2" soil blocker under florescent lights in my garage. After several weeks I pulled up the plywood and put down cardboard with 6" of compost on top.

Well today I started harvesting a few of the larger artichokes and we had them with dinner. They were a little on the small side but tasted great.

Black Soldier Fly - Are they a solution to our food scraps?

2010-06-22T16:10:00.000-07:00

I found out about BSF (Black Soldier Flys) by accident one day adding scraps to my worm bin. To my surprise there were large (1" of more) long maggots in my bin. I went on line and researched what could they be and what to do? I found out that they were BSF and you don't need to do a thing as they are OK in worm bins. Then I started reading more on The Black Soldier Fly Blog they are an interesting bug that are good feed for chickens (they love worms) and you could raise them in food scraps (win-win for the environment and the chickens). I was really interested because they will eat meat and other scraps that I was throwing away because they don't work in my worm bin nor my compost tumbler. I built a BSF composter from the plans on the BSF Blog on May 3rd I put it out. I've attracted regular fly larva and the chickens liked them but, not BSFs. Well for Father's Day weekend I mite have got a present from the composter.

Well I think they my be BSFs but Jerry from the blog isn't sure. So, I'm planning on trying to hatch them and see what comes out. Should be a nice little science experiment.

Wish Me Luck!!! LOL

Have a Great Day!!

Frank

Brewing Activated Compost Tea

2008-08-08T15:43:00.000-07:00

I just finished brewing some compost tea and applied it to the garden and new lawn.

Here is a video of my brewer

Have a Great Day!
Frank