Home Brewing - Ginger Beer

I love all sorts of fermented beverages. Wine, mead, ale, spirits, I have my favorites in each category. With the exception of spirits, Oregon allows me to make what I like, and I can work with spirits as long as I buy my base alcohol from the liquor store. Just as well, as I've had moonshine that was good and some that was only suitable for paint stripper or fuel additive. Distilling spirits is not something I want to have to deal with anyway.

But as for fermented drinks, I'm all over that. Often, unless you're using expensive ingredients, making your own alcoholic beverages is very cost effective. I work a lot with wheat, and once it's mashed, I can feed the spent grains to my animals, so I get two uses out of the grain. I can make between 25 and 30 gallons of wheat ale from one 50# bag of wheat. Price 25 gallons of wheat beer. Even if you compost the spent grains (which make excellent compost, by the way), it's still much less expensive than buying that much beer at the store.

But even if you do use relatively expensive ingredients, such as ginger, it's still cost effective. I bought almost a pound of really nice fresh ginger from the store (non organic) at $3.99/lb. That amount of ginger will make 3 1/2 gallons of ginger beer. Price ginger beer from the store (if you can find it) and figure out how much 3 1/2 gallons will cost you.  Probably a lot more than $3.99 plus a buck for the yeast and sugar.

The other nice thing about learning how to ferment your own beverages is that you can make things that you won't be able to find at the store. It's like cooking, once you learn the basics, the world is your oyster (or goblet in this case).

I'd been making a lot of wheat ale and got a hankering for something different. I'd experimented with ginger beer last year and found it to be easy and relatively fast to make (compared to beer) as well as downright tasty. So a while ago I decided to give the ale a break, and make some ginger beer. I wanted to make quite a bit, so I bought a large hand of ginger ("hand" is what a large section of the ginger rhizome is called) that weighed almost a pound. Once I had it peeled and grated I realized I would have enough to make 3 1/2 gallons. In order to make it an even 4 gallons, I decided to split the batches into 2 gallons of plain ginger beer, and one gallon each of ginger/kiwi and  ginger/pomegranate.  It's always nice to try something different, and pomegranate and kiwi are two types of fruit I've always wanted to experiment with.

Ginger Beer is one of those easy to make fermented beverages that doesn't involve a lot of steps like regular beer made from grains, or wine. All of the ingredients are available at your local grocery store, even the yeast if you use bakers yeast (which I have done in the past). It's also light and refreshing. The perfect drink on a hot summer day. You can start drinking it after just a few days fermenting, or you can bottle and let it age a bit. Either way, it's good. It has a gingery snap, but isn't overpowering.

2 gallons of basic Ginger Beer fermenting.

I like to use this like a big carafe. But sometimes I use it for fermenting as well. Depending on how much material is on the bottom, if I'm fermenting in this container, I may or may not draw directly off of this container for consumption. There's enough material in the bottom of this batch that I'll probably just go ahead and strain into another container, then return to this container for storage and consumption.

This is the size of container I normally ferment in. Ginger/Kiwi on the left, Ginger/Pomegranate on the right.

One gallon jars, you really can't beat them for trying out different recipes. Once finished fermenting, they'll be decanted into smaller jars or into bottles. Working with small batches is nice, especially when developing different recipes. If a recipe works, I can always scale up, but if it doesn't I haven't wasted much. And if a batch goes bad, I'd rather loose one gallon than 5. Batches going off is a real possibility because I don't use an air lock, and I lift the lid daily to check the progress. The sniff test works pretty well to check on progress of the ferment, but when I lift the lid new air will get into the container, and air is full of wild yeast and bacteria. But I've been brewing for a few years this way and it's what works for me.

Basic Ginger Beer - makes approximately one gallon

Ingredients -
4 T grated fresh ginger
2 C sugar
6 T lemon juice (fresh or bottled)
1 t Safbrew s-33 (general purpose, top fermenting, brewers yeast)*
1 gallon water

Method -

• Peel and grate the ginger
• Bring one gallon of water to a boil, then reduce heat and hold at a simmer for 5 minutes
• Add the sugar and stir to dissolve
• Add the lemon juice and grated ginger, shut off the heat (but leave on the burner), cover, and allow to steep for 1 hour
• Pour into primary fermenter, cover and allow to cool to just warm (100°F-105°F)
• Pitch yeast, cover or fit airlock, and allow to ferment for 3-5 days
• Strain into pressure safe bottles and store at room temperature or under refrigeration if aging, or you can begin drinking right away.

Variations on the theme:

Ginger/Pomegranate - To 3/4 gallon of basic ginger beer wort** add the pips of 4 large pomegranates that have been bruised. I like to freeze the pips first to break down the cell walls. Once thawed, I use a steel strainer and ladle like a mortar and pestle, to bruise the pips just enough to break the skin and release some of the juice, but not enough to crush the seed. Ferment for 3-5 days and then strain into pressure safe containers and age or begin to drink right away.

Ginger/Kiwi -
Ingredients -
7 large kiwi fruit, peeled and chopped
1 C sugar
1 1/2 C ginger beer wort**

Method -

• Bring the wort to a boil, add the sugar and stir to dissolve
• Add the chopped kiwi and reduce to a simmer, cooking for 20-30 minutes
• Force the pulp and liquid through a strainer and add both to enough ginger beer wort to make one gallon.
• Ferment as for basic ginger beer (3-5 days)
• When done, strain into pressure safe containers and age as you wish or start drinking right away

*A note on yeast and why I chose to use Safbrew s-33. I've worked with several wine and beer yeasts. I've even used plain old bakers yeast when making different wines and beers. So you can use any kind of yeast to ferment beers and wines, some really daring beer and wine makers allow wild yeast to colonize their wort or must just as sourdough makers will often allow wild yeast to colonize their starter. Yeast is literally everywhere.

But here's the deal, the yeast will have a strong influence on how your beverage will turn out. I've found that the yeast influences the flavor of the beverage as much as any of the other ingredients. So the yeast you choose is every bit as important as the other ingredients.

After a couple of years of working with different types of yeast, I settled on two as my staple yeasts. Safbrew s-33 is a nice, all purpose yeast. It's most commonly used to brew beer and it has a pretty wide range of working temperatures, doing well in cold environments (50°-60°F) and warm environments (up to the mid 80°s room temperature), so I can use it year round. And it gives the beverage a nice range of flavors, being able to preserve both grain and fruit flavors.

The other yeast I like to work with is Montrachet. This is a wine yeast that likes warmer temperatures, but will still work in cool temps, although not as cool as the Safbrew s-33. It also preserves fruit flavors well and isn't as harsh if I let it use up most or all of the fermentable sugars, producing a dry wine.

These and many other yeasts can be found at your local home brew store and online from places like HomeBrewStuff on Amazon (where I buy yeast, hops, and other supplies), FH Steinbart, etc.

**Wort is what we call the liquid that the yeast is pitched into when making beer. It's a beer brewer's term. In wine making the juice from the fruit is called must. Ginger Beer isn't really beer, it's more akin to a wine. In general, beer is made from grain, wine is made from fruit and/or berries. Ginger Beer is made from a rhizome, but it's called a beer anyway. What the hey, Root Beer isn't what people usually think of as beer either....

All content including pictures © Joanne Rigutto unless otherwise noted.

Seed Starting in January - Snow Peas

The goal: have the earliest possible snow peas.

I always get antsy in January. As I've mentioned in the past, the Winter Solstice is my New Year's eve, and winter is, for me, a season of awakening, as the days grow longer. Even if they aren't really growing warmer, in the northern Willamette valley or Oregon, winter is usually pretty mild. In fact, first pea planting is Presidents Day in mid February.

One problem with that is our cold, often waterlogged soils, which make germination of direct planted seed difficult. So, what I like to do is to start the seed indoors and transplant the little seedlings. Usually, I'd wait to do this until the first week in February, but given that we're having a pretty mild January, I've decided to start the seed now, a couple of weeks early.

I grow snow peas. They are nice to work with in the early part of the year as they germinate relatively quickly, prefer cool weather, and tolerate frost and freezing weather well. If I loose a planting, I can always reboot quickly.

3 oz. paper bathroom cup

For this project I'll be using paper cups and potting mix to start the seed. Sometimes I use nursery containers or plug trays to start seed, and sometimes I use peat or coir* pellets. But I'm going to be starting a lot of seed, and I want to avoid transplant shock as much as possible. I want to make transplanting as easy on me as possible as well. I used to start my pea seed in 2" band pots, which made transplanting easy as I would just place the little pot in contact with the ground, but it also meant that at the end of the season I had to go out and pick up all the little pots. Using paper cups makes transplanting just as easy as the band pots, but I don't have to go out and pick up containers at the end of the season. They're not reusable, but at the price, about 2¢ each they're cost effective. I buy my potting soil by the yard and pay around $50/yard for it, so I figure around 1¢ per cup for that for a total of around 3¢ in materials.

I don't use the peat or coir pellets for things that I'm growing a lot of, because, even buying in bulk, I can't get a good price break unless I buy 1,000 at a time, and, even then, they're over twice as expensive as the paper cups with a bit of potting soil. I'll be setting out the seedlings at 6" intervals, so I'll need 2 pots per row foot. I'll be planting 200 row feet per succession in 50' rows, so I'll need to start 404 pots (101 per row) per planting. I can space the little cups so far apart because I'm placing 3 seeds in each cup, if I were direct seeding I'd place 2 seeds every 4". Because I'm hydrating (soaking) my seed, I should have a very high germination rate.

I trialed this method a couple of years ago and found it works pretty well for peas, beans, cucumbers and squash, as well as all sorts of leafy greens. I use the plain, small bathroom cups, not the antibacterial ones. For plants that need more room, I'll be using paper cone cups sold for use with water coolers. Those I'll detail in another article later this year.

Pea seed, hydrated and ready to go

When I soak seed prior to planting, I count it out, weigh or measure it first, especially when I'm going to place a specific number of seed in a specific number of containers. I don't want to come up short and I don't want to throw away seed. I like to use these little plastic food storage containers for hydrating seed. They have a lid so I don't have to worry about spills, and I can stack them out of the way. They also work great for storing dry seed.

Usually I'd only soak the seed for 8 hours or so, maybe overnight. But because it's the cool part of the year and the soaking seed was stored between 55° and 60° F, I let it soak for a couple of days. This way I can be sure that not only is it fully hydrated, but I can see that it's germinated as well.

Acrospire (shoot) development in pea seed. The acrospire looks like a little tail or spine growing just under the skin or husk of the seed. 

The seeds in both of the pictures above were soaked in the same batch and were at the same level in the container. Warm water was poured over the seed and the container covered then left in a room at 55°-60° F. The seed on the left of the left hand picture shows an acrospire that is about to emerge from the seed coat (skin). The seed on the left of the right hand picture has already begun to emerge. Another hour or so and this seed would be too delicate to handle without damaging or breaking off the acrospire.

When soaking for longer than a few hours, especially when it's very warm, care should be taken to place the seed prior to emergence of the acrospires and rootlets. The acrospire is the plant shoot that emerges from the body of the seed. It goes up and the rootlets go down. If you handle seed after the acrospire has emerged from the seed coat, it's easy to damage it or break it off, rendering the seed useless.

In cool environments (50° - 60° F) you have a couple of days from wetting the dry seed to placing the seed in growth medium. As the environment gets warmer the time from wetting to germination can shorten dramatically. In the summer, when temperatures are 70° F or higher, I allow no more than 24 hours from putting the dry seed in water to planting. I only hydrate large seed such as pea, bean or corn. I don't bother hydrating small seed like radish, mustard or seed for squash and cucumbers.

While the seed is hydrating, I prep the cups by cutting a cross in the bottom and partially filling with potting soil, then tamping. Cutting the bottom of each cup is important. It allows for drainage and it also allows the roots of the plants to grow out and, eventually, into the soil of the beds they're destined for. The cups also need to be place in a container to hold them. I usually place them in plug trays with large cells or in nursery trays. But, really, any container will do as long as it will drain excess water. You don't want the cups sitting in standing water.

Filling and tamping.

You can tamp the soil with anything that will fit in the cups. On the left is a measuring cup from a liquid cold medicine. On the right is a small nursery pot.

Seeding.

When the seed is ready, it's added to the cups, which are then topped with potting soil and I tamped down with my hands. After that it's just a matter of waiting for the plants to emerge and grow big enough to plant out. If I am delayed in planting, I may let the plants grow to 3 sets of leaves and harvest some of them above the bottom set. That gives me pea threads for salad greens while still leaving enough of the plant that I can set it in beds and grow it out for the pea pods.

I'll go over the bed prep and planting for these pea plants in another article. So stay tuned....

All content, including pictures, © Joanne Rigutto unless otherwise noted.

Starting Seeds - egg carton method

I'm not a big fan of direct seeding. I just don't have as much success as I do when I start seed in containers and transplant. Root crops can even be started in containers if you do it right.

There are many advantages to starting seed in containers. I can seed into clean media such as potting soil, coir (the fiber from coconut shells), peat, or rock wool cubes. I can start the seed indoors, either in my house, a greenhouse, or a shed, which means I can control the temperature of the environment and the media I'm using. And, when I go to plant, I can transplant the seedlings into a clean bed or one that's been mulched for weed control. It's more work to start the plugs and then transplant, but I feel that, in the long run, not having to deal with weeds more than makes up for that little bit of extra labor on the front end of the process.

There are many ways to start seed in containers. Plug trays are a great way to do this. The trays are reusable, inexpensive, and when cared for, will last several years. There are also paper cups, peat or coir pellets, pulp egg cartons, cardboard tubes and nursery pots.

I'll be writing more on those other seed starting methods in later articles, but today's article is about using pulp egg cartons and pulp egg flats to start seed for transplanting. I like to use these for starting lettuce, endive, romaine, escarole, fennel, basil, and some root crops. Basically any crop that would benefit from transplanting shortly after germination and that doesn't do well if the roots are disturbed.

They're not so good for crops that need deeper media prior to transplant, such as solanums (tomato, pepper, etc.), corn, squash, cucumbers, etc.

Pulp egg carton. Good for more than just egg storage. The cells in the tray (bottom) are great small containers for seed starting, and, if the lid is solid, seed for carrot, turnip, or other types of roots that don't like transplanting, can be used. Once the seed sprouts, just place the lid on the prepared soil and let the plant grow down through it.

I  like using pulp cartons because they're inexpensive. If you buy eggs from the store you probably have some laying about even as you read this. If you don't buy eggs from the store you probably have friends who do and they have cartons that you could ask for. They also disintegrate when you plant, adding carbon rich material to the soil and allowing the roots from your plants to grow out through them. When you transplant, all you have to do is to pull the cells apart and place them, plant and all, into the soil, just as you would with a peat or coir pellet or a plant started in a peat or coir nursery container. This reduces transplant shock.

Because they're made of paper pulp, these egg cartons become very fragile when they get wet, so they will need to be supported. Any water proof or water resistant container will do.

Egg trays in a pastry tray

You can use just about any kind of container. This is a pastry tray. I've used one 18 count carton and one 12 count carton. One row of cells was cut off the end of each to make them fit the tray, but the tray now holds 25 cells. And it came with a dome, which helps with germination. The pastry was mighty tasty too. As a side note, when ever I buy a product, I always look at the container, thinking about what I can use it for. In this case, the container helped make the sale of the pastry. It's also why, when I buy eggs from the store, I usually buy them in pulp egg cartons.

Although, sometimes buying eggs in a plastic or foam tray does have its advantages. The plastic tray that the pulp egg carton trays are in was given to me by a friend who thought I could use it. He was right.

If you buy lots of eggs from the store, you might consider buying them in flats like this one. Or you  might be able to get used flats from a restaurant. Egg flats make great seed starting containers, as long as they're made of paper pulp. A standard flat holds 30 eggs. If you were to buy that many coir or peat pellets you might spend upwards of $5. The flat you'll get for free.

All content, including pictures, © Joanne Rigutto, unless otherwise noted.

Roasted Wheat Pasta

Fresh home made pasta ready too cook. So simple and easy. It takes about as long to roll out the dough and cut the noodles as it takes to bring the cooking water to a boil.

This has become my staple pasta and I make it frequently. I used to make my pasta from all purpose unbleached white flour, but when I began making ale from roasted white wheat I began experimenting with using some of it to make flour and wheat meal. While I love the nutty flavor that the roasted wheat flour adds to the pasta, when using only the roasted wheat flour I found that the resulting dough was too firm and brittle, so I began cutting it with the all purpose flour. I've found that mixing the roasted wheat flour and the all purpose flour 1:1 is just right. The all purpose flour adds some elasticity to the dough, but not so much that the dough contracts very much when rolled out (a problem I do have when using only all purpose flour). At 1:1, the flavor of the roasted wheat still comes through without being too strong.

Pasta made from this mix still has enough roasted wheat flavor that it comes through all but the strongest flavored sauces, and it's also delightful served with an Alfredo sauce, pesto, or served ala Carbonara. It's also very good served simply with good quality butter, some herbs and Parmesan cheese.

Fresh pasta is very easy to make and I don't use store bought pasta any more. Using a rolling pin and pizza cutter or knife, it takes me about as long to roll out the dough and cut the noodles as it takes for the water to come to a boil, and only a couple of minutes to cook. If you use a pasta machine to roll the dough and cut the noodles it would take even less time.

Roasted whole wheat. The pale grains in the center of the picture are unroasted white wheat.

To make the roasted wheat, place a portion of white wheat in a shallow roasting pan or dish (no more than 1 1/2" deep), and bake in the oven at 350° F for 45-60 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes. When the wheat reaches the desired color, remove from the oven and allow to cool before placing in it's storage container.

 

Grinding the wheat, before and after. This little grinder will process about 1/2 cup of wheat at a time into a coarse flour.

To grind the wheat into flour I use a small coffee grinder. If you have one, you could use a small kitchen flour mill, but I don't, so it's the coffee grinder for me. Small coffee grinders can be bought for under $20 and are handy for grinding all sorts of things (not just coffee beans). If you use a small coffee grinder you'll wind up with a coarse flour. I actually prefer this. If you prefer a finer flour, you'll need to purchase a small kitchen flour mill. I don't recommend using a food processor or a blender as you'll wind up with more of a wheat meal than flour.

One note on grinding grains, don't grind more than you will use in a month (I only make a cup of flour at a time). Because you're grinding whole grains, you'll have the germ along with the bran and starch of the grain. The germ has oils which will go rancid (become oxidized) eventually. The whole roasted grain will keep for much longer.

My preference for roasting wheat is white wheat. White wheat was bred from red wheat, which has more tannins in its bran, making it somewhat bitter to many people when ground into whole wheat flour. When buying your wheat for roasting, I prefer hard wheat as it has more gluten than soft wheat. But sometimes people do prefer soft wheat. Both are readily available from many grocery stores as well as from mills like Bob's Red Mill, located in Milwaukie, Oregon.

This recipe makes one serving, increase as necessary for more than one person. If you are unable to roast and grind wheat you could substitute whole wheat flour for roasted wheat flour.

Ingredients
1 large egg
1/2 - 3/4 C roasted wheat flour mix*
Pinch of salt
All purpose unbleached white flour for dusting the cutting board

Method
⦁ In a small bowl, beat the egg and salt together with a fork.
⦁ Add half of the flour mix and stir with the fork until combined, then stir in the rest of the flour mix.
⦁ Turn out the dough onto a well floured cutting board and knead until the dough is no longer sticky and is firm but still somewhat pliable.
⦁ Cover and allow the dough to rest for 10-20 minutes.
⦁ Divide the dough in half, and, using a rolling pin, roll it out as thin as possible (about 1/16" in thickness). If you're using a pasta machine, flatten the dough with your hand and run it through the rollers, starting with the thickest setting and progressing down to the thinnest setting.

I like to use this pasta cutter rolling pin to make layout lines in the dough. The rolling pin is supposed to actually cut the noodles from the dough, and it would if the cutters weren't wood (the pin and the cutters are all milled out of a single piece of Beech wood), so I still cut the noodles with the pizza cutter, but I really like the rolling pin for making the layout lines. Makes my noodles more uniform.

⦁ Using a pizza cutter or knife, cut the dough into noodles and move to a dry container. If you're using a pasta machine run the dough through the fettuccini cutter.
⦁ Roll out and cut the other half of the dough.
⦁ Heat a pan of water along with a bit of oil, to boiling and add the pasta, using a chopstick or fork to separate the noodles.
⦁ Once the noodles have risen to the surface and the water has returned to a boil, reduce heat to medium high and cook for 2 minutes, or until it has reached the desired tenderness.
⦁ Remove from water and drain.
⦁ Serve immediately with your favorite sauce.

*Roasted Wheat Flour mix - roasted wheat flour and all purpose unbleached white flour mixed 1:1

Roasted wheat pasta with Chicken Merlot. It's what's for dinner.

All content, including pictures, © Joanne Rigutto, unless otherwise noted.

Chicken Merlot

Chicken Merlot over home made roasted wheat pasta

One of the nice things about cooking with aged chickens (spent hens or, really, any chicken that is over a year of age) is that they can stand up to long slow cooking. Just as tough cuts of beef, such as brisket, need to be cooked long and slow, so too do aged birds, especially the wings and drumsticks, which are the toughest part of a tough bird. Because they need this kind of long slow moist cooking, the flavors that develop when cooking a bird like this are simply not possible to obtain with a young bird. The young bird would be mush by the time the flavors have developed properly.

This is a recipe I developed for older chickens and is similar to Coq au Vin.

Ingredients -
Drumsticks and wings from 3 aged hens*
3 large onions
3 large carrots
1 C chopped celery
1 C seasoned flour**
1/4 C butter
Cooking oil (corn, canola, safflower, etc.)
3 C Merlot wine
2 3" sprigs of Rosemary

Method -

• Peel and quarter the onions, then cut into 1/2" slices.
• In a large pot or Dutch oven, heat the butter and add the onions. Cook on medium until caramelized, stirring often.
• Peel and quarter the carrots, and layer them and the celery over the onions, once the onions are a deep golden brown. Remove from heat and set aside.
• In a skillet, heat 1/4 cup of oil on medium high, dredge the chicken pieces in the seasoned flour and frown in batches, layering the browned chicken on the carrots and onions as they come out of the skillet.
• Between batches, skim off as much of the oil as possible and deglaze the pan with 1/2 cup of the wine, adding it to the pot too.
• When the last of the chicken comes out of the skillet, skim off all the oil and deglaze the skillet for a final time, adding the liquid to the pot.
• Add the rest of the wine and the rosemary to the pot, cover, and bake at 300° F for 5 hours.

* This recipe is best made with the drumsticks and wings from aged hens (dual purpose hens who have gone through their second laying cycle). Aged roosters can be used, although the skin will be considerably tougher than that of an aged hen. The thighs and drumsticks are the darkest meat on the birds and along with the wings, are also the toughest. And, for this type of recipe tough is a good thing, as the birds need to cook for a long time in order for the flavors to develop properly. It's for this same reason that I don't recommend using the breast meat (neither the major breast meat nor the tenders) as even on an aged hen, those muscles will be too tender to withstand 5 hours in a 300° F oven.

However, if you do use either store bought chicken or home grown meat chickens such as Cornish Cross, Red Rangers, or even young cockerels of dual purpose breeds, reduce the cooking time accordingly. It'll still be good, but it won't be as rich as it would with the longer cooking time.

** Seasoned flour - 1 C white all purpose flour, 1 t salt, plus 1 T each garlic granules, onion granules,  Italian Seasoning, and fresh ground black pepper.

All content of this article including pictures © Joanne Rigutto

Low Tunnels, Winter Planting, and Season Extension

Red Oak Leaf lettuce, January 2011

To many people, winter is a time of rest for the garden. The days are short, the soil is cool (or frozen), and there's a lot or rain falling or snow on the ground.

But to me, winter is the time of beginnings because my New Year's Eve is the winter solstice.

I live in the northern Oregon Willamette valley, and our winters here are pretty mild. Only short periods of freezing weather, and usually a fair amount of rain. On the shortest day, we get about 8 hours of sunlight. Not enough to keep things growing like they do in July, but it's enough to keep plants in maintenance mode or, on sunny days, even slowly growing. In my opinion, the biggest challenge I have in my gardens during the winter are cool soil and waterlogged soil.

Back in 2010, I started looking at ways to grow produce in my gardens during the winter. The problems that needed to be dealt with and mitigated were cool soils and too much water in the soils. I already knew that these issues could be solved by using greenhouses but I didn't have those, nor did I have the money to buy one.

So, the alternative was to look at something smaller. My research lead me to low tunnels, which are truly amazing devices. They are inexpensive, portable, easy to configure in any way that works for a particular garden bed. They can be used on the flat or over raised beds. Easy and fast to set up, and take down as well. In cold weather they can be covered with greenhouse film. In warm weather they can be covered with floating row cover fabric or shade cloth, depending on what you're growing and the time of year. They can be used to get a jump start on spring, and extend the season on the back end of the year.

Celery, planted in late January 2011. The kneeling boards down the center of the tunnel mean that the tunnel doesn't have to be opened other than the ends to allow entry and exit.

But care needs to be taken, as a low tunnel with greenhouse film on a sunny and warm day can also turn into an oven. I found that out when I first started working with low tunnels. I had 120  72-count nursery trays (aka plug trays) in a tunnel one day. The little seedlings had only been up for a few days and were looking good. One day it got up to the low to mid 60s, but I didn't think anything of it because it was cloudy. Then the sun came out. Working in the gardens, I enjoyed the sunshine for a couple of hours. And then I went to check on the seedlings.... The tunnel had been sealed, and when the clouds parted and the sun started shining that tunnel turned into an oven. It was probably between 90° and 100° in that tunnel. If the plants in the tunnel had been larger they probably would have survived. But still being in the cotyledon stage, they fried. I lost 8,642 plugs of seedlings in just 2 hours on that day.

Lesson learned. Now, if it's going to be over 55°, especially if there's a chance of the sun coming out, the least I do it to open the ends of the tunnels. But usually, if the highs are going to be in the mid 50s, the danger of freezing temperatures is probably over, so the greenhouse film may not even be necessary and the tunnels will have floating row cover fabric over them. If, for some reason, they do still have  greenhouse film, I'll open the ends and roll up the sides during the day.

There are many ways to build low tunnels. My preferred style is bows made from 10' sticks of 3/4" schedule 40 PVC pipe over 5' wide beds. It's best to use schedule 40 PVC because it's more resistant to UV radiation and temperature fluctuations. A tunnel built with 10' sticks over a 5' wide bed will be approximately 40" tall, which gives the average person enough room to work in a closed tunnel when crawling down the center, and if working from the sides with the walls rolled up, the gardener only has to reach 30" (or less if you leave a center path.

Low tunnel set up for peas in February. The sides are anchored by blocks made of left over mortar (I'm a retired tile and stone installer).

I cover the tunnels with 12' wide greenhouse film or 12' wide floating row cover, which leaves one foot on either side for weights to anchor. Sand bags, rocks, soil, boards or other weights can be used to anchor the sides of a tunnel. Sand bags (or bags filled with soil) are the best weights to use as they are easy to move and won't damage film or fabric that flaps against them.

66" wide tunnel (that used to be my default width of beds). This tunnel's film is held down by boards. The ends of the tunnel are kept closed with pinch clamps that anchor the film to the end T-posts.

To anchor the bows of the tunnel, I use ground pins, a top rail, and T-posts. The ground pins are made from 4' round fiberglass rods normally used for moveable electric fencing. The rods can be cut with a side grinder using either a carborundum or diamond blade and the blade is used to shape the blunt end into a point, which makes driving it into the ground easier. Each rod is cut in half, making 2 2' ground pins. When driven into the ground to a depth of 12", they are sufficient to keep the bows in place. The ground pins are placed on either side of the bed at 5' intervals, and the pipe slid over them.

T-posts are driven into the ground at each end of the bed and the end bows are tied to them. A top rail of the same pipe that the bows are made of, is run down the center of the bows after they are installed, and anchored to the T-posts with string and the tops of the bows with duct tape. This makes a surprisingly sturdy frame to hold the film or fabric. I also like to lay plastic construction netting over the ridge pole and bows. This adds extra support to the film or fabric and helps to keep them from sagging when it's raining.

Low tunnel with netting on the sides and ends to keep chickens out of the tunnel when the film sides are raised.

All content and images, unless otherwise noted © Joanne Rigutto

Growing Micro Greens and Baby Greens

Microgreens and baby greens are very easy to grow and make for a nice quick crop for the garden. They're excellent in salads, some are very good for cooking.

If you're going to grow microgreens, you'll need lots of seed as you won't get as much food per seed as you will if you let the plants grow into baby greens. That's because a microgreen is harvested at the cotyledon stage or it may be harvested after the first few true leaves have emerged.

 

Radish microgreens (left) and Garden Cress microgreens (right) The radish has been harvested at the cotyledon stage, the garden cress has been harvested after the first few true leaves emerged. Some plants, like radish, need to be harvested no later than the cotyledon stage if they're to be eaten raw as the true leaves are tougher and have an unpleasant rough texture when raw. Others, like the garden cress, are very small and delicate even when 2 or 3 sets of true leaves have emerged, and are still very good raw.

When deciding what to grow for micro greens and baby greens, some things need to be taken into consideration. These are the 3 criteria I use when growing for home use: cost vs yield, will I eat them raw or cooked, and how will I grow them.

Cost vs Yield

Having grown many types of plants for both microgreens and baby greens, I've had the opportunity to evaluate them and track their yields. I grew microgreens and baby greens for restaurants one summer and they had me growing all sorts of interesting and delicious greens. Growing these types of crops can be somewhat expensive, and that's because this type of production uses a lot of seed. It was microgreens production that caused me to start buying my seed by the pound for many types.

If I'm growing microgreens, I'll be harvesting them at the cotyledon stage or just a little older. The cotyledon are the first two leaves put out by the plant, but are not true leaves, so there's really not much there to harvest. Restaurants usually use them only as a fancy garnish, and they are sold at extremely high prices because they are very expensive, in terms of seed, to produce. Some, even when harvested as baby greens, are still pretty expensive to grow, because they have small, delicate leaves, so the yield is measured in ounces, not pounds or heads. The radish and garden cress pictured above are good examples of these.

If you're going to eat them raw, some, like the radish, really need to be harvested at the cotyledon stage, but if you plan on steaming or adding them to soups, you can let them grow into quite large baby greens. Others, such as mustard varieties, will change in flavor as they grow. Mustard varieties can be quite spicy when they grow their true leaves. So they can go from having just a little bite as microgreens to being like horseradish once they're 4" tall, especially when grown in a hothouse or during the warm months of the year. But, if you let the greens continue to grow, you'll get more greens for your money.

As far as cost of seed, Radish is one of the least expensive and will give you the most volume in yield for microgreens. The fancy mustards such as red streaks are some of the more expensive seed and will yield less as microgreens because of the small, delicate leaves.

My recommendation is to buy at least 4 ounces of seed to start, and when you decide what you like, then buy your seed by the pound or half pound at a time. A couple of seed suppliers who I like to use for bulk seed are Mountain Valley Seed Co. and Kitazawa Seed Company. Both have a very nice selection, and both sell seed in bulk quantities.

Will I eat them raw or cooked?

As I mentioned above, some plants are best raw at the cotyledon stage, some I'd rather let grow to the baby green stage so I get more yield. Others though, are best cooked if I let them grow true leaves. So, what I'm going to grow will depend on what I'm going to use it for. Below is a list of some of the crops I like to grow as microgreens and baby greens.

• Radish - best at the cotyledon stage if eating raw, otherwise, let grow some true leaves which are very good steamed, used in soups, and other cooked dishes. One of the things about radishes that always amazes me is how fast they are. During the warm months, when started in a warm greenhouse, radish will go from seed to harvest at the cotyledon stage in as little as 5 days, and 10-14 days for baby greens.
• Mustard varieties - Good at the cotyledon stage, but not much yield, so I prefer to allow them to grow into baby greens. They can get hot, and Mizuna mustard can become bitter, when too mature or when grown in hot weather. Heat is good if you like horseradish tasting heat, and you can eat them raw in salads or on sandwiches. Otherwise, light cooking will turn the heat to sweet. There are a wide variety of types of mustards, from broad leaf frilly mustards like Southern Giant Curled, to deeply veined green and red varieties like Red Giant, and lacy varieties such as Red Streaks and Mizuna.
• Herbs such as arugula, cilantro, basil, fennel, etc. - I prefer to let these grow to baby green size and they are all very good raw or cooked at this stage.
• Cress - All varieties (watercress, upland cress, garden cress, curled cress) are good as baby greens and add a peppery accent to anything they're used in. They can be used raw or in cooked recipes. Upland cress is kind of cool looking as it grows in a rosette.

Baby beet greens = delicious!

• Beet - My preference are Bull's Blood and Detroit Dark Red. Both are pretty reasonable as far as cost of seed goes. As microgreens, the dark red leaves and stems make a striking garnish to any salad or cooked dish if you want to do something fancy. Grown into baby greens, the leaves and stems are very delicate and make a really nice addition to any salad. They have the flavor of young Swiss Chard, and I actually prefer growing beet baby greens instead of Swiss Chard because beet seed is less expensive than chard. Beets are one of the longest to germinate, and they're comparatively slow growing to boot. The beet greens shown above took about 6 - 7 weeks to go from seed to the baby green stage. If I remember right, the leaves were about 3" long.
• Amaranth - like beet, amaranth is a little slow off the mark but makes a beautiful baby green. And the seed is very reasonably priced when purchased by the pound. Amaranth also comes in a variety of different colors.
• Onion - I think that, given the price of the seed and the amount of greens you get, onions are better left to scallion and bulb onion production. I don't grow onion microgreens for myself for these reasons.
• Squash - Here's one that seems a bit odd, but actually, squash seed is pretty inexpensive and the microgreens are very large and have good flavor when used in salads or lightly cooked in stir fry. Squash leaves are edible and the very young leaves, steamed or cooked in other recipes are pretty good.
• Sunflower is another plant that can be grown for microgreens. They're best at the cotyledon stage and should be used as squash microgreens.
• Corn - This is an unusual microgreen. It's more accurately called a shoot. The plant is harvested when 3"-6" tall. It can be grown green, or, if covered and blanched will make it a pale yellow or cream color. The shoots have a grassy flavor with a little hint of licorice. The best seed to grow is popcorn. You can buy it at the store (yes the grocery store in the popcorn section). Buy regular popcorn, not microwave popcorn. Aside from being too expensive, microwave popcorn already has butter (or butter flavored oil) on it, which will interfere with germination.
• Pea - I prefer to use snow pea seed to grow pea baby greens, also known as pea threads. My favorite snow pea is a variety called Mammoth Melting Sugar, although Oregon Giant is also very good. The nice thing about growing peas is that if you let them get 3 pairs of true leaves, you can cut above the bottom two, and plant the plug out into the garden. Cutting will set the plant back, but you can grow it on for a regular crop.

A word of caution when buying seed to grow microgreens and baby greens: Don't buy treated or coated seed. Only use plain, untreated, seed. Treated or coated seed is OK for crops that you'll be picking at maturity, but you don't know what the treatment is, what's in it, or what, if any, residue will be present on the greens, especially those harvested at the cotyledon stage.

How Will I Grow Them?

72 count plug trays with newly emerged seedlings for microgreens and baby greens.

I've tried lots of ways of growing microgreens and baby greens, but the easiest and most cost effective way, at least for me, is to grow them in plug trays using potting soil with a light topping such as sharp sand (aka clean mason's sand). The trays are relatively inexpensive, costing only a dollar or two each, are economical on the potting soil, and are easy to handle. If I'm growing baby greens, I can set the tray in contact with a mulch such as grass clippings, old hay, or leaf mold, and the fine roots from the plants will find their way out the drain holes and into the mulch. This gives the plants some nutrition, and it makes it possible to pull the tray without too much trouble when I remove it from the bed to harvest the greens. This system also has the benefit of being weed free. Because the potting soil is clean, and the trays over their mulch bed suppress weed germination and growth, when I pull the tray for harvest all I have to do is cut the greens with a pair of scissors and I have greens that are ready to eat that need only a light washing to be ready for a salad.

Trays of microgreens being grown on a mulch bed in a low tunnel.

Harvesting baby Violeto bok choi.

Once the microgreens or baby greens are ready for harvest, I like to bring the trays into the greenhouse where I have benches. I grasp the plant just at the soil line and pull the plant, plug and all, out of the cell. I cut the plant away from the plug, and then the spent plugs can be composted. Because they are still weed free, once they are composted, I have more soil to use to grow more greens. The trays, if cared for, will last a few years. So the whole system is very efficient and cost effective, especially if you price baby greens at the store.

So give these crops a try. I think you'll enjoy growing them.

I'll probably be trialing some other methods this year and if I come up with something easier or more cost effective, I'll write an article about it. I'm always experimenting, looking for a better way...

All content and images, unless otherwise noted © Joanne Rigutto

Calçots

 Calçots being cleaned for market

Calçots (pronounced Kal-sot) are onions. Specifically, they are the stalks and leaves grown from mature onion bulbs that have been planted for seed production.

December planted onions for calçot production. These are regular yellow storage onions that were planted in a low tunnel. The growing bulbs are on the left, cardoon and artichoke plants are in the nursery pots on the right.

Ordinarily, the bulbs would be planted in the spring to produce seed. But when growing for calçot production they can be planted any time from fall to spring when the soil can be worked. If you plant them in an area that is susceptible to freezing, it's a good idea to plant them under cover of a low tunnel.

You can grow calçots from any mature onion bulb, but I usually grow them from plain old yellow storage onions. I buy the onions by the 50 lb. bag (I eat a lot of onions during the winter). Sometimes I buy onions specifically for planting, other times I'll plant any bulbs that have sprouted in storage.

Sprouted onion bulbs in the house for winter çalcots.

If you find that you have an onion bulb that's sprouted, just fill a small container of water and place the bulb, roots down, and set in a window. They'll grow a little spindly, but they'll still be good. You could also plant them in potting soil. If you do that, use a 6" pot. The stalks will use the onion bulb as their nutrition as well as anything they pick with from the roots that will sprout out the bottom of the bulb. You can also force the bulb to sprout by placing it, root down, in a small container of water and setting it in a cool place, just as you'd germinate an avocado seed.

Whether you force or grow already sprouted bulbs in the house, or you plant bulbs in the garden, once the stalks and leaves have gotten 12"-18" tall, it'll be time to harvest. You want to be sure to harvest your calçots before the plant sends up the flower stalk. If you planted the bulbs in the garden, just use a potato fork or spade to dig the bulb, which will be partially decomposed and slimy (but not to worry, this is normal). To clean the calçots, simply remove the remnants of the bulb from the stalks, discard, cut the roots off even with the base of each stalk, and wash the calçots. You will get 3-5 çalcots from each bulb.

Calçots that were grown in the tunnel pictured earlier in this article.

Detail of an onion bulb growing çalcots. I've cut open one of the sprouted bulbs pictured earlier in the article. You can see how the stalks were growing in the bulb. This is the bulb that was in the tall glass of water after it had been growing for a month or so. The total length of the çalcots was 17"-19", about 6" of which was from the root base to where the leaves split.

The cleaned calçots. Part of my dinner tonight.

So, now that you've grown your calçots, what can you do with them?

Well, you can use them as you would scallions (green onions), or, you could do as they do in Catalan, Spain, and grill them over a fire until the outside is blackened, but they aren't cooked all the way through. Remove them from the fire and wrap in foil and allow to finish cooking in their own steam. Serve with your favorite dipping sauce. In Spain, at the Calçot Festival, they are served with Romesco Sauce made with tomatoes, peppers, nuts, and olive oil.

More about Romesco Sauce with links to the Calçodata (çalcot festival in Catalonia, Spain), and other interesting info.

All content in this article including pictures, unless noted, © Joanne Rigutto

Fried Dumplings Italian Style

Dumplings are found in the cuisine of many cultures. One of my favorite are gyoza (pot stickers). One day I had made some gyoza and decided to see what they'd be like deep fried. They turned out delicious.

Gyoza can be made with many different fillings, pork being the most common. They're easier to make than you might think, and can be either steamed or fried. I suspect that you could bake them as well, although I haven't tried that. Yet...

They make a nice side or main part to a meal, and in addition to using the traditional Asian pork fillings, I like to make them with Italian sausage, ground pork with Mexican style seasonings, or minced chicken meat. With a little bit of practice you'll find that making these little dumplings is dead easy. All you need is a filling and gyoza wrappers. Gyoza wrappers are round, whereas won ton wrappers are square. Most grocery stores carry both, but some only carry the won ton wrappers. You can use won ton wrappers instead of the gyoza wrappers, just cut them into circles. One of the things that make gyoza different from won ton is the shape. A half moon with pleats along the edge. The dough used for won ton may be a little different, but it'll work fine for either steaming or frying as long as you cut the squares into circles.

How many to make will be up to you. If I'm having them as an appetizer or side, I'll make 6 per person. If it's the main dish, 12. Figure on about 1 mounded teaspoon of filling per dumpling.

You can also make lots of these (gyoza usually come 200 wrappers per pack) and freeze them for later. When freezing, I like to use a sheet or baking pan to hold the dumplings until frozen solid. I just place them on the sheet or in the baking pan in layers separated by freezer paper or plastic wrap. Once frozen solid, they can be transferred to freezer bags or air tight containers for storage in the freezer. Cook frozen dumplings by adding to the oil without thawing. Gyoza wrappers can also be frozen prior to filling. You'll want to thaw them before using, which can be a bit of a hassle, so I prefer to make the dumplings and freeze them instead of just freezing the wrappers.

Fried Dumplings Italian Style

Ingredients -
Italian sausage (mild, hot, or sweet)
Gyoza wrappers
Small container of warm water
Oil for frying (corn, canola, etc.)

Method -

 Place a wrapper on your work surface and put a teaspoon full of the filling in the center. Be careful not to over fill them as you'll wind up breaching or tearing the wrapper when you fold it over and make the pleats.

Dip your finger into the water and wet the edge of the wrapper, then fold it over the filling and seal the edges by pressing them together. As you do this, make sure to press out any air pockets. Then fold the edge into pleats. I usually just do 3 pleats. This adds to the appearance of the dumpling as well as making sure the edge is sealed.

Once the dumplings are all made,  put 1/2" of oil in a skillet and heat on medium high until the oil begins to shimmer*, then add the dumplings, laying them on their side, and fry until golden brown (just a few minutes). Flip them over and fry the other side until golden brown. Rremove to a paper towel to drain. Continue until all the dumplings are done.

Serve immediately with your favorite dipping sauce.

*If you're using a deep fryer, heat your oil to 375° F.

All content including images © Joanne Rigutto unless otherwise noted.

Breed Profile - Cornish Cross, a work in progress

This is a preview of a breed profile I'm currently working on. I will be raising some Cornish Cross chickens for my own use this year and will write a profile similar to the ones for other breeds of chicken. I'll be using a Cornish Cross purchased at my local grocery store, as usual, as the benchmark. This preview will be included in the finished profile when it's published sometime this summer or fall (depending on when I order chicks and get around to slaughtering them).

Mixed breed chicken on the left, pastured, free range Cornish Cross on the right. It's really not a matter of one being better than the other...

I love Cornish Cross chickens. There, I said it. And I'm not ashamed of my love for this bird. The modern Cornish Cross is the workhorse (workchicken?) of the modern meat poultry industry. Millions of the birds are raised by commercial growers and home growers every year. It is the most commonly eaten chicken in the USA, probably in the world.

In recent years, thanks to some elements of the local and healthy food movements, this bird has gotten a bad rep, and I'd like to rectify some of this. The birds have been portrayed as being genetically manipulated (in a GMO way), given growth hormones (it's illegal in the USA to administer growth hormones of any kind to poultry), being slothful and lazy (which isn't a characteristic of the bird, but is of the growing system used), and having health problems (again, primarily issues with the growing system that many people, including the large commercial growers) use.

I'll address these issues below...

Genetics - The modern Cornish Cross chicken is the result of decades of careful breeding. It's no more a GMO (genetically modified organism) than your heirloom tomato, and was produced by the same breeding principles. That is to say, the bird's characteristics were created by breeding one type of chicken to another type of chicken in order to produce a bird that meets a set of criteria. The Cornish Cross hybrid (it's the offspring of two chicken breeds), was first introduced way back in the 1930s, which means that people have been developing this hybrid and its parent stock for over 70 years. The Cornish Cross chicken doesn't need to be a GMO, regular selection and development of parent lines through selection is ample, and an excellent example of what standard breeding practices can produce when done intentionally with specific goals in mind.

Likewise for the claim that some have made that the birds are fed growth hormones. First off, it's illegal to feed growth hormones to chickens, and second, the selective breeding of parent lines have made the use of growth hormones in these birds unnecessary anyway. Anyone who's raised Cornish Cross chickens can attest to their rapid rate of growth even on low protein feed.

As to the birds being lazy and prone to structural and organ problems, it all depends on how they are raised. If they are kept confined to small tractors or pens and fed a high protein feed, they definitely can develop structural and organ problems. They also will not move around much. If you're restricted to a small space and provided with lots of rich food that was just a few feet away, you wouldn't move around much either. Add to this the naturally placid temperament of the birds and it's no wonder they behave the way they do.

However, when allowed to run loose and fed a lower protein feed, they will be much more active. Raised in such an environment, they will grow slower and the meat will be firmer (although never tough). When paired with dual purpose chickens, or with turkeys, they will be just as active as those birds for the majority of their lives. However, even raised that way, the Cornish Cross should be slaughtered no later than 6 months of age for cockerels (males) and slightly longer for pullets (females). There comes a time when the birds will get so heavy that they really do have trouble moving around. I once raised a small flock to between 5 and 5 1/2 months of age. I was intentionally raising them to be very large birds, and ran them with a flock of free range layers. The birds were fed twice a day and foraged for part of their food. The smallest bird, a pullet, dressed out at over 6 lbs. The largest bird, a cockerel, dressed out at 10 lbs 15 oz.. That's a chicken the size of a small turkey. At that point in the bird's life, he had gotten so big, he was actually having a hard time getting around. But up until a couple of weeks prior to slaughter he had been doing pretty well.

When fed properly, and especially if they're allowed to have exercise, there are very few organ and structural issues with these birds, at least not the Cobb 500, which is the strain I've been working with for several years. And they do have a sweet and placid temperament, especially when compared to extremely active birds such as White Leghorn layers. Cornish Cross can even be paired with more active or flighty birds and have a calming effect on those nervous breeds such as White Leghorn, and species of bird such as Guinea Fowl. I've used them to calm guinea fowl keets, which are extremely active and nervous.

The Cornish Cross I will be raising in 2016 will be used in this breed profile when I slaughter and process them. As always, I will be using a Cornish Cross of comparable weight from my local grocery store as the benchmark that my birds will be compared to. There will be some differences, but not a lot as far as type and quantity of meat. The real difference is in the eating quality. That is, my birds are raised very differently than the large producers' birds. My birds have firmer meat due to the activity and the fact that they're older at slaughter than the store bought birds. The reader will be able to see differences and similarities in build and darkness of meat, quantity of fat, etc. in the photos I'll include.

When I buy my benchmark birds, I purchase birds from the same producer (aka "integrator"). It's a common brand, but I don't disclose which brand or what store the bird was purchased from as these profiles aren't meant to be a "better" or "worse"  set of comparisons. They are meant to inform people of the differences between the bird that everyone is familiar with, and various other breeds and crosses. Intrinsically, there is nothing wrong or right about any breed, cross, or production system. What matters is what you like to eat and what you'd like to try that's new to you. For people who are not familiar with other breeds of chicken, it can come as quite a shock to find that most breeds are very different than what they are used to. And too, the growing systems can make those birds even more different.

When a person is used to a plump, round, Cornish Cross, and they are confronted by a lanky bird with half the breast meat, long drumsticks and skinny wings, it can be a little off putting. But knowing what you're getting into, as they say, is half the battle. And if you're interested in different birds or production methods, and cooking with them, the adventure is definitely worth it.

All content in this article, including images, © Joanne Rigutto, unless otherwise noted.