Recipes * Critters * Garden * Stories *

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Field Test From the Garden

We are running out of time to take on these nasty little no-see-ums, black gnats that are tiny and pack a whollop in their bite that takes weeks to heal.  They show up mid May and disappear as temperatures soar, usually around the 4th of July.

Farmers around here wear long sleeve cotton shirts with cuffs and collars, tuck the shirts into their jeans, and tuck their jeans into their boots or put thick rubber bands around their ankles because gnats can get in and under everything, but they don't bite through clothes. They are small enough to climb through window screens so if you live in gnat country and sleep with your windows open for circulation, they are probably in your house and feasting on you while you sleep.

You can see them swarm in agricultural areas where there is moisture, or in neighborhoods in town after sprinklers run, and we hear they nest nearly everywhere. They extract blood for the protein in laying their eggs, but they do not carry diseases like mosquitos.

The local farmers, well and septic guys use Skin So Soft from Avon that has an oily barrier so the bugs can't grab hold, but they are quick to say it works better on mosquitos than gnats. But it's all they've got. They have tried everything else and nothing seems to work on black gnats.

We have tried quite a few products as well, and they are not very effective.  We know there is always something in nature to compliment a chemical developed in the lab, and with the need for something to be used topically and continually in communities like ours, it stands to reason the repellent would be safer if it comes from the ground. We got into researching natural remedies and ordered up a bunch of essential oils, and got to work.

We are out in the country and have standing water all around, including an abandoned pool right next door. We repurposed a SkeeterVac for the outside and it is capturing gnats and mosquitos, and we are also in the process of  planting mosquito repellent plants in the yard (lemongrass, catnip, lavender, etc). Mosquitos are a problem here year round, and worst in the spring, summer and fall.

A couple of months ago, we started with a basic homemade mosquito repellent that was shared on Facebook, and modified it to make it our own. After several successful weeks of using it, we passed 25 bottles out to people on our FB page and family and friends, and asked for feedback. Bottles were sent to Texas, Arkansas, Illinois, Colorado, and up and down California. We are waiting to hear if it works for them against the mosquitos they have. 

We want to develop effective and safe products to use on kids and animals; something with ingredients that come from the garden and grow wild; something that won't stain clothes or dry oily on the skin; and something affordable and that smells reasonably good.

Last weekend, we took on the black gnats. We developed three formulas and sprayed ourselves down including the dog. For me, it was: right arm, Formula 1; left arm, Formula 2; face, neck, hair, back, legs, belly and ankles, Formula 3. For my husband he used: left arm, formula 2; right arm, Formula 3, and Deet product on face, hair, neck, ankles and belly. He is extremely reactive to gnat bites and we didn't want to take a chance on field test day 1.

On Saturday we worked for about 9 hours outside. We reapplied the formula every 2 hours because natural products absorb more efficiently than chemical ones.  After two hours it was clear Formula 1 was keeping off mosquitos but not gnats, so we washed it off and reapplied the area with Formula 2.

Formula 2 worked really well for both of us. We watched the gnats land on us and crawl around and fly away. Of course it would be better if they didn't even land, but this was a great first step.

Formula 3 also worked reasonably well, but not as well as Formula 2.

On Sunday we showered, reapplied Formula 2 from head to toe, and headed back into the yard for 7 more hours. At the end of the day my husband only had only 3 bites. I had none anywhere on my body except for the shoulder and neck area after crawling through buggy, spidery trees to run drip lines and I'm pretty sure they are spider bites.

The scent is not quite right - but if anyone wants to try it on the condition of giving some honest feedback, we'll send you some.

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

The Turnout


We needed a budget getaway and TravelZoo provided us just the place: Mendocino. We headed through windy roads and little towns, stopping along the way at interesting places, like the 'Got Bats?' guy who had a roadside shack. The birdhouses he made were all repurposed from something else, and in active use. Wrens, bats, and a variety of others darted in and out of the barrels and garden box birdhouses.

This little weekend was leisurely and quiet. We wandered around shops and took drives to Fort Bragg. There were a couple of beaches needing someone to sit in the sun and watch the dog romp through a little creek dumping into the ocean. What is it about dogs needing to roll in the stinkiest stuff they can find? She carted back about 10 lbs of sand in her hair.

The hotel was in town and pretty - a clean, spacious, dog friendly room right off the main street. Mendocino is mostly a dog friendly town in terms of the shops, but she needed to stay in the room for meals.

The Harvest was an awesome find - it is a market that caters to its organic and natural clientele. They carried a ton of essential oils and Jojoba oil so we can continue research on the bug repellent formulas. The ones we ordered online arrived missing Rosemary, and that is being shipped out this week.


There were nice, nice people everywhere, beautiful weather in the high 60s, low 70s, sunny and bright every day with very little fog. We walked through gardens and visited with the locals. We met Buster at Glass Fire, who showed us his beautiful glass sculptures and the shop in the back. We spent about an hour with him learning his trade. Big talent there, and we brought home a little something.

 Today happens to be the 100th Birthday of the American Cancer Society. Imagine that.  We will be making some joyful noise today, you can count on that!

My prayer is that we can celebrate the day together when cancer goes the way of the Dinosaur.
 
 

Thursday, May 16, 2013

A Cure for Olives

There is admittedly a long wait time between harvesting olives and eating them. For us it was four months and twelve days for dry salt cured and seven months and fourteen days for water brined.

There was a lot of excitement and anticipation on harvest day, cleaning, sorting and jarring them in different brining methods.  And now the first leg of their journey is over.

Background: Last winter, we harvested 20-25 lbs of olives from two trees from the corner of the yard and split the yield in thirds. One third was dry brined and two thirds were water/salt brined at varying degrees of salt concentration. We harvested twice:  early November at the start of the season and mid December at the end. We wanted to learn if the size and flavor of the fruit would change.

Dry brining is a quicker method, 60-80 days, and we gave it a try. On Feb 23rd those olives were rinsed, soaked in water for days and stored in the fridge in two types of marinades - one spicy and one normal - including olive oil, vinegar, spices and garlic/onion.  To be frank, they were all puckered up and incredibly salty. But we gave it a couple of months, hoping they would rehydrate and lose some of that salty flavor. They never did and so out they went.

We had high(er) hopes for the remaining batches, which involved bimonthly and monthly salt water changes throughout the winter and spring.  Brining is amazing because you decide when they are ready. You can adjust the degree of ripeness - we prefer ours with just a little nip of bitterness, and this week they were perfect and we removed them from the brine. Next, we drained and rinsed them and will be put through a daily water bath for 5 days to leach out some of the salt and then on to the marinading room.

We have learned a lot from our first harvest.

We learned about color. For Kalamatas, you can pick all of the colors at varying degrees of ripeness, what you look for is size. Once it's in the marinade, the concentrated salt brine strips some of the the flesh color anyway and you end up with a beautiful variegated assortment of green, light red, and darker black olives. We have a commercial bottle of Kalamatas in the pantry and they look the same way.

We learned about harvest differences. The late harvest fruit has a more robust flavor but a more delicate flesh because it was allowed to completely ripen on the tree. It doesn't need as long or strong of a solution to cure. Brining late and early harvests the same amount of time left the later harvest a little softer meat than we would like. We will fix that next year.

We learned why it is important to keep the early and late harvests separate. Now that both are out of the brine, I mixed them together for their water bath. And then realized the late harvest fruit needs to be used first because it is soft, and we will toss the early harvest back into a lighter storage brine for later. So that added an extra step of hand sorting them.

Next season, the research will take all this into account and concentrate more on the trees. What will happen to olive production when they receive regular water and fertilized through the growing season? WIll it matter in the fruit by watering heaviest right before the harvest? Will there be more
yield? Larger and meatier fruit? Will it speed up the fruit maturity? I think we mentioned the trees had been sorely neglected for the last decade or more. They needed a modest pruning which I did and hope it won't shock the trees into skipping a season of production.  With only two producing trees, and won't be going for a deeper prune until the two adolescents produce fruit.

And just this week, more comparative research came up. Our neighbor down the way has a big olive just on the outskirts of his land.  It gets no special attention or water, other than what nature provides. He offered the harvest to us if we want it. Trees have different yields year to year, and so this will be especially helpful to compare with ours and teach us how to best care for our little grove. Always learning. This is fun.



Thursday, May 9, 2013

Solution 1

Eureka, we found it! The right containers for this amazing, out of the kitchen and garden super great mosquito repellent we stumbled upon.  Solution 1.
 
The bottles are a great shape, with a locking toggle switch on top, easy to carry, easy on hikes. 
There were baskets full of them and in snazzy colors. 
 
We snatched 'em up, brought 'em home, filled 'em up,  tried 'em out and will get 'em shipped. 
 
Just three samples left. Want to try it?  Privately email your name and address.
 
The only thing we ask in return is feedback. Oh, and your undying allegiance to the cause. 
Down with Deet; up with homemade alternatives that are safer to use.
 
Water*Lavendar*Essential Oils*
 
First Batch
 

 Looks like an army ready to deploy


Wednesday, May 8, 2013

In the Thick of It

Bunny season. My favorite. Mommas and babies have been hopping around the lawn teaching them about the street, and the wicked people who live here with dogs, and all about the patrols of flying things. I'd guess being a bunny out here is a bit of a disadvantage, but they do run like lightening.

I am in full learning mode about what repels insects, and what might make a good non-deet/non-skin-so-soft repellent. It started with that confounded pool next door and devising things to plant in garden beds nearest to it. And from there ... the idea just sprung from somewhere generic on the web. A posted homemade repellent caught our eye, we mixed some up and loved it. It worked really well.  I tracked it back to several websites and lost the thread on a site called Grow Food Not Lawns. Where it originated I may never know.

Theirs was a simple combination of household ingredients and one essential oil.  We consistently use it and it consistently works on mosquitos. But now we are in little black gnat season -  gnats - chiggers - noseeums - that land unnoticed and leave big painful and itchy welts. We need something that works on them, too.

I've rounded up several vials of essential oils of plants naturally discouraging mosquitos and other flying insects. Next, I needed a cross section of people willing to try it in different parts of the country, so I put a shout out on FB through our City Folk Farmers page to give away 25 free samples. Small samples of Repellent #1 will be headed soon to Texas and Illinois, Oregon, Arkansas, Colorado, Virginia and Washington state. As more types of repellent roll out, hopefully they will be willing to try it out in their areas and report back to the hive.

We see a handful of non-chemical mosquito repellents on the market but they are really expensive. Why?! Wholesome repellents that are good and good for you should be cheap and effective so people use them safely. We won't use repellents occasionally; we spray down every day on every part of our bodies including our faces and scalp. What we use has to be safe and really work.

We have used solution 1 for about ten weeks, on ourselves and the dog. The scent is indescribably delicious - sweet vanilla lavendar that dries with no sticky residue and lasts a good long while. It's easy and safe to reapply as often as needed. It doesn't attract bees, which I thought it might.

Market research continues, and hopefully solution #2 will roll out sometime in June to help the Hubs' gnat allergy. We are stalled on a name that will convey a natural skin product that repels bugs without using the word repellent. Should it include the word natural? from the garden? from the pantry? skin treatment to discourage bites? We will not be using the word Organic, too heavily regulated.

Another mosquito update. We are in week three of the SkeeterVac and it is interesting a LOT of bugs, and not just mosquitos. Is it a success? We'll know soon ... the rice fields to the east are ready to roll, and we'll be abuzz with transformation in no time. Stay tuned for updates when we are in the thick of it.