When a friend gives you Basil... make Pesto for the freezer!

My latest video gets you ready for one of the easiest, quickest, after-work home cooked meals there is: Pesto with  pecans! :-)  Enjoy!

Foraging Wild Foods In Our Yard

Roses & Pecan Trees are Blooming!

 These are from the only rosebush that survived the drought, but oh aren't they gorgeous! Paul commented that they "are almost florescent": a beautiful orangey coral color.

Just as glorious in their own way are the fresh, day-glo green, male pecan tree flowers. You can see the long strands of pollen-rich catkins hanging in clusters. The female flowers are too small to see, but they are just above the catkins - Pecan trees only make female blossoms if all conditions are right: enough water, enough sugars and starches....and to date no one has figured out a scientific way to consistently predict the crop. It is so unique each year that pecans are called "God's crop" by the botanists and growers who study these trees.

 

I am betting on a great crop from our trees this year, in part because it has been several years since we had a bountiful one, and we've had good rain (thank you, Father God, for answering our prayers and sending rain to tide Texas over despite all predictions to the contrary. The drought is not gone, but we are grateful things are much improved in most of the state).

One of our trees is a native pecan that has the sweetest nuts. I gathered 100 pounds (before shelling) from it alone our first year here. We are just finishing them up (shelled and froze them in vacuum packs), so it would be a great blessing to have a new crop to stock up again.

If you want to produce as much of your own food as possible, do consider nut trees. You can have them in cities, and even a small lot can have a pecan tree. They produce a huge amount of high-calorie, healthy food with minimal effort once they are established. Pecan trees will not grow everywhere, but here they just come up from forgotten nuts that get buried. So look around and see what grows well where you live, and add the best possible "Edible landscaping" to your yard! :-)

Seed Catalogs: Planning a Central Texas Garden

Oh my the seed catalogues have started to arrive. Just at the time when I am regretting that I didn't plant a fall garden. Just at the time when it is too cold to get out and finish picking up the pecans from the later-dropping trees that I saw all over yesterday when we were getting the Christmas decorations out of the garage. Just at the time when it finally froze hard and killed off every remaining green leaf.

Except for the Swiss Chard. Not only our New Favorite Greens but also a very pretty plant, especially in the Bright Lights form with neon colored stems. The ones in the back yard, hidden from the deer who took turns with us getting the front yard crop, are frozen at the moment but will thaw and survive, ready to be picked when we get hungry for some fresh food in the deep winter. Chard was a happy discovery this year, that will always be a part of my future gardens.

This year was my second year to have a garden. I've learned so much this past couple of years - I always loved reading about gardening and thought I knew a lot. But the most important discovery has been that gardening is something one must do to really learn. Actual experience makes all the difference.

One thing I did this year that proved a big eye opener for me (and really bolstered my confidence), is that I planted *two* gardens, miles away from each other, and got to see the differences and similarities between the two. One I planted at home, like I did last year, but the other I planted in a borrowed plot of a friend who is no longer able to garden. So I had her knowledge to draw on. The two areas have very different soil, micro climates and even water.

Of real significance in success was in which varieties of vegetables I planted. Some varieties did great (Emerald Giant peppers), while others languished (California Wonder peppers). Some types produced to beat the band (snow peas), while others made little more than some green manure (edible pod peas and english peas). I'll post more about the varieties I like over the next few weeks.

So as I look through the seed catalogues this year and begin planning next spring's garden, I'll be mindful of that. My "My Space" blog proved very useful as a gardening journal, and I was fairly responsible about posting planting dates and varieties (and locations because I tend to forget what I put where). I also kept the empty seed packets and labels, so now I can refer to those and MySpace to help me plan this year's purchases. I am learning that the key to being a good gardener is experimenting and learning from experience. Keep trying and each year there will be more successes to repeat from the year before, and more fun new successes to discover. It's always a "Victory Garden" in more ways than one!

Hoping For A Pecan Crop Today - and 500 Years Ago

I think the earliest mention of Pecans was in The Journey of Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, published in Anno Domini 1542 (on pages 78 and 79 of my copy). He talks about a particularly poor tribe of Indians who go each year to a place where there are nuts on which they will live for two months: "Even of that they do not always have, since one year there may be some and the next year not."

This is a true account, written by a shipwrecked Spanish sailor who traversed what is now the Southern United States, including Texas and Mexico, living with many different Indian tribes, and survived to return home to Spain and write his story.

It is a book worth reading - and surprisingly accessible, even easy to read (skip the introduction until after you've read the actual book). Cabeza de Vaca is a sympathetic and likeable hero and his story is a simple and unvarnished telling of what happened. The various descriptions of differing tribes and their highly diverse ways and means of life is worth the 3 or 4 hours it will take to read the book.

It is a book that may change some of your assumptions about a number of things.

You can download it from archive.org or from Google for free, don't even need a special "reader". You could even print it out. My copy is a facsimile (true copy) of the 1905 translation by Fanny Bandelier, published by Rio grande Press in 1964.

He also talks extensively about prickly pears: "tuna", and how important they were to some of the tribes as the mainstay of their diet for much of the year.



I picked up pecans yesterday afternoon, getting up the ones that have fallen before mowing for, what I hope will be, the last time this year. We have a Saint Augustine lawn, so it is easy to see them and I can move about on my knees comfortably. Year before last, I gathered nearly 100 pounds from this one tree. Last year, there was no crop at all to speak of. This year looks promising, I picked up maybe five pounds yesterday. This earliest tree is a Native, and its nuts are small, but they are richer, sweeter, with a much higher oil content than cultivated varieties.

I've mentioned that my trees all drop at different times. It also takes a matter of weeks for all the nuts to fall from a single tree, because I do not flail or shake my trees. If you have ever driven in the South and seen signs that say "No Flailing", now you know what not to do! No hitting trees with sticks from the road!


When I was growing up, lots of people picked up pecans as part of their living, and kids all did it to earn spending money. Southern Oklahoma is Pecan country and they grow wild all over. They remain a major crop for the area.

I take my pecans home to get them cracked, since the machines up there are set for small natives. Here, pecans are also a major crop, but the orchards are mostly cultivated and so the machines are set for cracking larger ones. The machines that crack them have to be set just right so as to crack the shell without breaking the kernal.

Once they've been cracked, they need to be picked out and stored. They will keep for a while at room temperature but will eventually turn rancid. For long term storage, Pecans can be vaccuum packed and frozen, and they will keep indefinitely.

Winter Harvest: Fresh Food in the Cold Months

In Texas, and perhaps to a degree in most of the country, food gardening can continue into the winter months. There is always something to be doing when one is raising food. I will be picking up pecans from now through December, as each tree drops them at different times.

I'm not planting a winter garden this year. There just is not time and energy for everything. But the Swiss Chard is holding its own and looking great for winter gathering. That is, the plants
inside the fence are. The ones outside we and the deer take turns with. The plants grow, we gather some, the deer eat the rest. The plants grow back, and so on. Swiss Chard is a biennial so will overwinter and be good for at least two years.


We still have onions that I grew and they are keeping nicely. They get hotter the older they get, but they have good flavor. I left a few in the ground and they just keep sending up green shoots through the winter, so there's a little green to liven things up. I will put out more onion plants in January. We grow what is called "short day" onions here, as they bulb based on the number of daylight hours - and our days are shorter than those up north. I have ordered plants from Dixondale Farms, a Texas company, so that I can get them early. I also buy some from the local produce or feed store when they get them in. That way I am sure they are a variety that will grow well in this country. I only set out the little plants that come in bundles, because the little bulbs never actually make for me.


My tomatoes did poorly and I have no green ones to store. My friend stores them, and she said they kept until February when they used the last of them. She gathers all the green ones right befoer the first frost, wraps each in newspaper, and puts them in a single layer in cola flats, under the bed. She said she just pulls one out and unwraps it when they need a tomato and surprise! Each is red and ripe and (she says) tastes lovely!

Last year we enjoyed turnips, beets and carrots as winter veggies that could be left in the ground and picked before dinner. Some of the turnips got a little woody toward the end of the season, so I will gather earlier when I grow them again. Parsnips would be a super choice for that but I haven't discovered the secret to those yet. Except that the tops do not look like carrot tops! Last batch I planted, I ...er..ah... I weeded the patch and only later found out I had pulled up the parsnip seedlings in error. *sigh*

This summer, I planted two kinds of winter squash: acorn and spaghetti. The acorn squash were great fresh but did not keep. Those stored in a dark place turned orange and dried up, those stored in refirgeration developed mold.

The spaghetti squash, though, turned out to be super keepers. I waited until their color had begun to get more yellow and they had a pale spot on the bottom (like watermelons) before picking them. I let them cure by sitting in a basket for a few days then put them in a net bag
and hung them in a dark closet. This was in July I think? Anyway, I cooked one of them last week and it was perfect. As far as I can tell they have all kept beautifully. I saved seed from it. I will definitely grow them again.


As the weather cools down, my peppers are finally behaving and making more peppers. They kind of stalled during the heat. If last year is any indication, I'll be able to gather peppers right up until frost.

I have Saffron Crocus bulbs to set out this week. It will be next fall before I know if they will do well for me, as they bloom in the autumn. I don't really think of them as food, but since I love to have flowers anyway why not have some that will also provide the most expensive spice in the world? :-)

Weather Forecasts: How Much Firewood Do We Need This Winter?

Used to, the only thing we had to do to prepare for heating in the winter was to make sure there was a match stick long enough to light the gas furnace of the central heating unit.

We do not have central heat in this house. We have a wood stove for most of our heat, and one of the new things I am learning to do (in addition to learning how to build a fire - that will be fun to write about when winter comes) is to store up enough fuel for the winter.

The first thing I learned was that we had to get wood that was cut in pieces short enough to actually fit into our stove. They can be pretty big around but if they are longer than 21" they will not fit into the fire box.

How often in life does that question "Will it fit?" turn out to be THE essential one?


One of the best sites I found that answered my questions about using wood is Woodheat.org. Loads of good, helpful information. Our woodstove was in place when we bought the house so their chapter on firewood has been a HUGE help to us.

The wood available in this part of Texas is generally 4 different tree families: Oak, Mesquite, Pecan, Hackberry. Hardwoods burn very hot, soft woods burn very fast. We chose oak, as the best-of-the-best. Oak does not cost any more than other wood in this area. We also have some pecan because it came from having our own trees trimmed. Pecan wood is wonderful for barbequing with. It gives a good flavor to food. We are hoping to use it for that, and stick to the oak for heating.

Wood apparently needs to sit for a while (6 months) after it has been cut so that it can "season" (meaning for it to dry out so it will burn better). So, it should be gotten in advance. We had an opportunity last year to stock up on wood. We had no clue how much volume of wood it would take to keep us warm. As it turned out, the winter was pretty mild, and we used about one cord of wood (a "Cord" is a stack that measures 4' tall by 4' deep by 8' long). We have about 2 cords remaining.

But do we have enough? That question has me looking at long range forecasts.

Texas weather is goofy. Something like 6 different climate regions, 8 different hardiness zones (which do not necessarily coincide with the climate regions), and a squillion little microclimates within it all. Our winters are mild compared to the Northern and Midwest states. The main concern with whether or not it will be a hard winter is whether cold fronts will hang about and keep it cold for a week at a time, or whether it will be so warm that snow won't even stick.

I've found a promising site Called Texas Winter (txwinter.com), also linked from my Blog List, that is focused exclusively on forecasting for this coming winter in Texas. I live right near one of the dividing lines for their snow predictions, but they are predicting good snowfalls for nearly all of Texas! WooHoo! Their forecast is available from the Winter Maps tab on the site.

On the home page, they have various articles that give insight into weather prediction, including historical El Nino effects. It's a good site to follow that is written in plain english with lots of helpful information.

I was going to write about weather signs and lore but this is getting too long! I will write about those later in the week. Thanks so much for reading, and have a wonderful day.

Fall Is In The Air

I am told it was 57 degrees when I left for work this morning. Although that isn't "official", it is probably accurate and is a degree lower than the record low for this date (set in 1917, according to AccuWeather.com). Perhaps we will have an early fall this year?

The "Sweet Autumn Clematis" is blooming with its fragrant white blossoms that will carry us almost to first frost.



And two of our pecan trees are already dropping leaves. We have several pecan trees in the yard, and each of them loses its leaves at a different time, spread over more than a month from the first til the last.



I have heard that each pecan tree that grows from seed is a unique species. The varying calendars for leaf drop and nut fall lend credence to that as much as the difference in size, flavor and quality of the various nuts.

One of our early trees is a Native (Wild) one that bore more than 100 pounds of nuts two years ago. They are so tiny I had to take them to Oklahoma to get them cracked, as the machines around here are set to larger sizes to accomodate the great orchards of cultivated trees (although there are still many native trees too).

Another of our trees is so susceptable to insects that it is a waste of time to try to gather its nuts. Our friend who used to live here told me it was the same way back when they had the house.



There are always dozens of volunteer pecan trees coming up around the yard. I mow most of them down because everyone who wants pecans already has their own trees. But we also make sure that a few are allowed to grow, so we can be sure we've always got pecans. Only once or twice in my life, and then only for very short periods, have I lived in a house that didn't have a pecan tree in the yard.